


The Journals of Lord Captain Amber Elaine Ambrose Rogue Trader, Constania Litha of the Bloody Rose

by Feithline



Series: Journals of Amber Elaine Ambrose Lord Captain Rogue Trader of the House Ambrose, Constania Litha of the Bloody Rose [1]
Category: Adepta Sororitas - Fandom, WH Rogue Trader, Warhammer 40.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:41:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27407497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feithline/pseuds/Feithline
Summary: These are the journals of the Rogue Trader of House Ambrose, Amber Elaine Ambrose, Constania Litha of the Bloody Rose.  The journals chronicle her time as the Rogue Trader of the house for her own reference and for her descendants.Amber is the youngest child of the House of Ambrose and was tithed to the Ministorium as an Adepta Sororitas, Battle Sister.  Her family was killed and she was released to keep the long and storied house alive, and if possible, find out what happened to her family.  Her family's trade warrant spans 10 millennia and they have served the Imperium of Man faithfully since the Ultra-Marine Primarc gave the family the trade warrant, a Luna Class cruiser, and power armor.  Amber takes over the Rogue Trader position from her late father Kahlid Omar Ambrose.  The journals start with an account of events around her release from the Sororitas and investigation of her father's death
Series: Journals of Amber Elaine Ambrose Lord Captain Rogue Trader of the House Ambrose, Constania Litha of the Bloody Rose [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2002357
Kudos: 3





	1. The Begining

**Author's Note:**

> These will be written as the game is unfolding (being played). They are accounts of day to day life, the business of being a Rogue Trader in the Imperium of Man and a true and loyal servant of the God-Emperor of Mankind. This is set in the Warhammer 40K universe so it is dark, a bit human-centric. There is on occasion violence, possible graphic content but each log will be marked with warnings.

I write this account after the events but I felt this was an event in my life and in the life of the Rogue Trader House of Ambrose that it should be recorded. I am now the Rogue Trader of the house. This was not my destiny; mine was to serve the Imperium as a Sororitas Sister. My older brother and sister were to have stepped into my father’s place and take over or aid in the Rogue Trader activities. I will recount, from my eyes, how our destinies were changed.

  
  


**The Abbey**

I was preparing for an evening vigil. There were a number of us in the month-long meditation before we took our vows to the Adepta Sororitas. It was to be a time to reflect on where we had been, where we were heading, and if there were any second thoughts or obligations preventing us from taking the vows. A tap at my door was not expected. A first-year novate was there, she said the Abbess had sent for me and I should come immediately. I took a few moments to compose myself and then off through the quiet halls to the Abbess’s chambers.

Her study door was open and when I stepped in I found she was not there. The evening light was streaming through the stained glass panes throwing colorful patterns on the floor. I looked up at the pane with Saint Mina and reflected on the vows I was soon to take. I did not hear the Abbess return, a gentle hand on my arm brought me back from my thoughts and I saluted her, apologizing for my inattention. She offered me a seat across a small table from her. On the table were a data slate and a decanter of wine, I had not had wine since leaving the Cassian’s Bolt, and my father's flagship. She filled two glasses and then pulled up some images on the data slate.

At first, I did not know what I was looking at, it was a ship prow blade but I was not sure why she was showing it to me. She tapped the image and it zoomed in tighter on the name and crest on the prow, tap again and even tighter and I could read and recognize. My eyes met hers and then I looked back at the image, she tapped the screen again and a report from the in-sector seneschal Pari appeared. The prow of my father’s cruiser had been found, all attempts to make contact with him have failed, no other parts of the ship have been found. As I read and reread the light shifted and streamed through the stained glass pane of the God-Emperor of Mankind. The golden light reminded me of the armor my father wore and a thousand other memories flipped through my mind. The Abbess was speaking but I could just hear voices, laughing, and silence. Looking up I realized she had asked me something and I had missed it.

I apologized and gathered myself and shut off the data slate. She nodded and turned the slate back on and tapped it again. A letter to her appeared and she nodded for me to read it. The Adeptus Ministorum head of the sector was advising on the matter, the matter of my staying in the Sororitas or leaving to become the Rogue Trader of House Ambrose. The decision was mine of course but the Ministorum head wanted to keep the house alive and functioning if possible. ‘Ambrose has been a steady, reliable, and loyal house and it would be a shame to lose such an honored and storied house.’ I was to be granted the rank of Constantia and if the house did not preserver or I found my father or siblings I could return to the Sororitas in honor, picking up where I left off.

I had said nothing as of yet. I knew the business of course but I was not one of the heirs apparent to the warrant. I could not bring myself to let the house and its history die like this. I looked up and met the abbess’s eyes and nodded, I would leave and see if I could find out what happened. The house would not die because I was too afraid to search for answers.

A month later I found myself aboard the secondary ship of the Ambrose Rogue Trader house, The Artemis. The abbey had given me four Sisters as my guard. Two were novitiates with me, one was a skilled armorer and the last was an older veteran sister to continue our training. Having them with me was a comfort and I had become used to the rigors and training of life in the abbey.

**The Artemis**

The crew of The Artemis was grieved to hear that my father's ship was lost. House Ambrose had always treated the crew as family. The crew was the backbone of everything we did, our successes, and helped us back up on our feet after setbacks, losing my father was like losing their own fathers. The whole crew pulled together and got The Artemis ready to head out into the expanse. We were in a yard at Scintilla for a little over a year. This ship had been used to escort our trade ships and others to various ports in the Calixis sector so it needed to be kitted out for longer excursions. During the year I got a crash course in what had been going on for our house and interviewed crew for various positions.

Pari was to be my seneschal. Her father and brother were on The Cassian’s Bolt, my father’s flagship, so she was the only connection I had to the goings-on for the last few years. It had been 4 yrs. since I had seen my family; my father had come into the Calaxis for a delivery and a short visit. During that visit, I got the rundown on plans and progress for our colony in Caffa. During my time at the abbey, I was kept up to date on the business, got extra training so I could, if needed, assist the house in business. I never thought I would actually step into my father's place. Pari and I bonded quickly; we were both now alone in the universe as her whole family had been with mine on the flagship. She was eager to get out to the colony and see if we could figure out what had happened. She pulled as much information as she could together and presented me with a house status. There were a lot of unknowns. No one had heard from the colony, my father, or any of the house transports. The rogue trader who found the prow had gone back out to see if he could make contact with the ship or colony and to look around the maw for the rest of my father's ship but found nothing. 

The first position to fill was a navigator capable of the rigors of navigating and mapping the expanse. Visscher was the house we used for our navigators. They were known for dealing in secrets as well as fine navigators so they could be useful on a few fronts. The group that was on the Artemis was novices under the tutelage of a semi-retired navigator so they would not serve for the longer, unmapped voyages. Visscher sent 4 possible lead navigators to interview with me. Two were far too young and green, they made me nervous just sitting talking to them. One was an older navigator who felt slippery. Pari thought he would be good but I was not sure I could trust him. The last was a younger navigator who had been leading a group of navigators for in-sector hops. He was eager to do something more. He was polite and personable, most importantly he gave me a good feeling. So Yoshi Haru of house Visscher would be my lead navigator.

The next was a choirmaster for communication. I wanted an Astropath Transcendent to lead the choir. They were more stable and less likely to need bolter bullets to the head randomly. Pari and I went to the choirmaster on scintilla to see who was available. The choirmaster said he only had one transcendent available but he thought would be a perfect fit for me. The man he introduced me to was alarming to most but he had a mutation that the choirmaster was correct in thinking would fit with a rogue trader with a sororitas background. He was a swarthy-skinned man, blind as they all are, with beautiful blue-feathered wings. I said yes immediately. I was never one to believe in miracles or ‘signs’ but an astropath transcendent with wings like the living Saint Celestine was the closest I had come to a ‘sign’. He was fairly quiet but when we did talk he was a very devout follower of the God-Emperor. The choirmaster gave him two choir members to go with him. I did not have to ask for the choir members and he seemed eager to see Zalavant move onto another choir position. It might have had to do with Zalavant’s large dislike for the useless nobles, but it fit well with my own attitudes about the fat, fawning nobles who did nothing but spend thrones like water.

I already had an Enginseer, Octavian-C36. He came with The Artemis and cared for her like a lover. I was pleased to know she was a loved ship and was satisfied to leave him as Enginseer. I did need an Explorator and Lathe-Hadd provided Janus Caleb-8. An interesting being, he seemed to dance on the line of being what the Adeptus Mechanicus would call heretical but he was skilled and seemed oddly personable for a cog boy. The rest of the crew remained, as they were, even the captain. I was the rogue trader and a captain was still needed if I was not on the ship.

The next piece was the work to be done to the ship. That was a little less than a year in the yards at Scintilla. The Artemis was a storied and ancient ship but it had been a sector ship, it would need some upgrades and refit to be ready for the expanse. I also needed to get a copy of the warrant. No rogue trader of our house had been foolish enough to travel with the actual warrant. The document was kept in the family vault on Scintilla along with other documents. It was a process to prove who I was, that a copy was needed, and then finding the proper officials to sign and certify the copy. While at Scintilla I picked up a small job of taking supplies to Port Wander for the Navy, this seems a small thing, just a supply run, but it gave me a simple negotiation for my first act as a rogue trader. Cargo loaded it was off to Port Wander and points beyond.

**Port Wander**

It had been some time since I was last at Port Wander, 10 ish years at least. Last I had seen it is when father had come into the sector to deliver me to what I had thought would be my destiny as a Battle Sister. It was not an ever-changing port but it was ever busy. This was the last point in the Imperium before heading out into the unknown void. The Navy had several docks, as did many trade houses and noble holdings. Rogue Traders came here to sell goods acquired in the expanse and resupply. Crusade ships headed out into the void also made a final stop here.

It was a slow transit into the port and we had to drop the Navy supplies first before any other business. I took the opportunity to try and fill in a timeline Pari and I were trying to fill in on the last known whereabouts of the Cassian’s Bolt. The Navy did not generally keep track of ships other than their own but a few dock officers confirmed what the port report stated that it had been three years since the last sighting of the Bolt at Port Wander. Pari thought that fit as we had no docks at Port Wander so if father had come into the sector it was to drop off cargo or repairs that could not be done at Footfall where we did have two docks. She was not overly concerned about the time and I tried to follow her lead. While I had been kept up with the general business health and activities I did not know the day-to-day operations. She suggested, and I agreed, a stop at the battlefield in the Maw was in order. The prow had been found floating there and it was worth a look around to see if other parts had shown up or recognized by us. We took on foodstuffs for a standing contract with House Chorda. Pari said that usually it would be foodstuffs from the colony at Caffa but we were probably late on this delivery so we should just get food here and go to Lucian’s Breath before heading to Caffa. We added some luxuries to the food supplies in hopes of smoothing over the lateness of the delivery, coffee from our own plantation, and other items not common to ration runs. Loaded up we headed out of Port wander for the Maw.

**The Maw and Battlefield**

The battlefield is a waypoint in the journey through the Maw. It was the sight of a battle but also seemed to be an eddy in the warp that collected hulks, pieces of ships Xeno and human, and other detritus from the warp. I am not sure my navigator was thrilled at the stop but he obliged and even made the trip in shorter than expected time. The sight of so much wreckage was indescribable and humbling, huge vast ships rendered junk, and floating in silence was chilling. I had the choir try and make contact with my father but we only received silence. Scans picked up a part of a ship with some power but once we found which bit of wreckage it was too small for the Bolt. We did check it out and found it to be a rogue trader’s ship from House Awl. We salvaged some goods, the shredded warrant of trade, some weapons, and the second closest thing to a sign I have received. In the rogue trader’s quarters was a box, well hidden and warded. In it was a Sororitas artifact, a sword breaker. I was not vain enough to think anything so grand as it was meant to be found by me, a sister now rogue trader. I did take it and felt it right that it came back to a Sister’s hand rather than a rogue trader who dealt and was killed for, dealing in soul gems. The Sisters with me also took it as a good omen and agreed that it was right that I keep it not so much as the right of salvage, but that it should be serving the Sisters of Battle. We also salvaged the maps and holo tables from the ship. Yoshi Haru said they were from House Benetek and could be translated allowing us to find anything interesting Awl had found.

Spending that much time hanging in the battlefield comes with risk, as we were reminded. Finishing up pulling the holo-tables and maps we scanned three power systems coming online near us, probably pirates but we did not remain to find out. We had seen them before they knew we had so we finished up and left for Footfall.

**Footfall**

Again Yoshi shortened our journey and we arrived at the transit in point for Footfall days earlier than planned. It was a few days transit in and a bit easier docking as we had two docks of our own here. Pulling in Pari explained that the ship in the other dock belonged to another rogue trader, Jonquin Saul, per an agreement with my father. House Saul used one dock for loading and unloading and was a short contract but Pari was not sure where we were in the agreement. I recalled House Saul being an honorable and steady house, not dissimilar to ourselves. Pari suggested, and I agreed, it would be worth touching base with Jonquin Saul if he happened to be in Footfall. We needed to know where we were in the contract for the dock and to let him know House Ambrose was not dead. 

Safely at the dock in Footfall, I got my first look at the prow of the Bolt. Standing beside it I laid my hand on it and felt the cold reality of what the prow sitting here in a warehouse meant. Looking up at the deep green metal, the Ambrose crest, and the gothic lettering of the name ‘Cassian’s Bolt’ just reinforced the events that had me here now. Sister Lynahla stood apart from me giving me some time and space, shooing away Pari and the dockmaster for some time. It would be untrue if I said I did not weep for the loss of family, blood, and ship. I would have time later to mourn the losses but now it was business; Pari and I met with the dockmaster to fill in more of the timeline. He had seen my father a little over a year ago, so more recent and things appeared to be fine. He had been here selling off nephium for the Chorda contract and picking up supplies. This information helped narrow down how long he had been missing and reinforced that we needed to make the Chorda run in order to keep that contract. I wanted to give the crew some leave time so we stayed in Footfall for two weeks. There were things we found would be good to acquire, little did we know evidence would also be acquired, when out in the markets of Footfall an assassin made an attempt on my life. It was hurried, slapdash, and unsuccessful. I had to admit that it was good Fenger insisted I take arms men, as well as the Sisters, one of his riflemen, took out the assassin, or I should say the resulting fall took him out. I rewarded the arms man with the assassin’s gun, the thrones on the body, and training to become a sniper. We were then led on a merry chase to see if we could track who hired him. It appeared he was a sleeper who had been activated but then it was unclear who activated him. Janus had a look and found the body to have a high level of good quality augmentation, not automatically Mechanicum but they might know who funded the augmentation. We retained the body as evidence or later exploration of the data it might contain. We did speak with the administrator of Footfall and he was less than useful but such is his position and choice in life. I was pleased to find on my return to Footfall that the gang the assassin used to distract us had ‘disappeared’, whether that was the administrators doing or not I do not know or care.

Pari found that Jonquin Saul was in port at Footfall while we were and arranged for him to join me for dinner. We had agreed it would be good to touch base with him and get the status of the dock contract and just get to know someone with which father had a good working relationship. He was a gracious and courteous man, and let me know through conversation that the assassination attempt was known. He was sorry to hear the state of the Bolt and the unknown whereabouts of my family. I am not sure I ever met him in my time on the Bolt but it was good to get to know a fellow rogue trader and a pious one at that. I will have to continue to foster the working relationship Ambrose has with Saul.

  
  
  


**Lucian’s Breath**

Once again Yoshi has proven capable and skilled, he shaved days of the trip to Lucian’s breath. We were given a path to come in on the far side of the planet to avoid the Winterscale ship in the system. They addressed us and I chose to ignore them, we dropped off foodstuffs and picked up nephium. The house Chorta representative was happy to see us if not a bit concerned if we would show at all. The promise of building back up back stock of food and the added luxuries seemed to smooth over the lateness of the delivery, we will have to see how the politics fall out between Chorda and Winterscale. The idea of crossing battle lines seems like a bad idea unless we have the guns to back up one side or the other. 

**Caffa System**

I would say it was good to be home but there is no home. The colony that was 5 million strong is now a smoking crater. There were no system defense ships, no transports, and no Cassian’s Bolt, also no enemy ships. When I got planetside I met with what was left of the leadership Foreman-Laity Sera Gregolin, Colonel Matthias Comeauy, and Olympia Lipira the Adeptus Ministorum representative. The farms were still working but needed some basic mechanical help and were going to need the water purification systems restored within the next year. They filled in as much of the timeline as they could but they had been continuing on as best they could till my father returned. They were grieved to hear that he was probably not returning and that I was now the rogue trader of House Ambrose. They had been stockpiling food, which was good as it is always saleable. Pari agreed with me when I expressed being impressed that they just powered on without the bulk of the colony and my father. She also agreed a holiday to mourn the loss and celebrate the survival of the house was in order. I have decided that Sera will be promoted to Istandar ( _ leader of a province) _ , Matthias will be promoted to Emir ( _ military leader) _ and Olympia will lead the ecclesiarchy though I do not know what title should be given or by whom. They have all led as best they can considering what had occurred and I am proud to have them as part of the Ambrose house. 

There is literally nothing left of the colony but the ecclesiarchy complex and it is in shambles. I asked Sera and Matthias to gather the outpost leaders there so I could address them, their needs, and reassure them they have not been abandoned. The crew of The Artemis helped with the clean-up efforts, Janus and his reclaimator aided with basic mechanical needs, and the Sisters and I offered our strength and spiritual guidance. I enjoyed the work. The people of our ships, colonies, and holdings are important. House Ambrose cannot function without them and to work alongside them in restoring what we had was an honor. I will have to remember to take time like that periodically and have my children do so also.

Yoshi asked to chart the system for himself so we did take some time to scan the system. It was good that we did because we found the system defense ships, a transport, and an Iconoclast pirate ship on the edge of the system, more clues on what happened. It looked like the system defense ships were lured off and something larger attacked the colony. One defense ship was salvageable with parts from the other two, the transport had parts for an orbital and the pirate ship was interesting. The Iconoclast had some gravity shields that might be interesting Xeno-tech. Janus pulled what he could from the system ships but did not feel comfortable messing around with the cogitators on the Iconoclast ship so we just pulled them out of the ship for later investigation. Janus has been forthright with me about what he can and is willing to do with the facilities he has available. I respect that and I do not particularly want to break-in a new explorator every time we do something that might be dangerous.   
Yoshi wanted to take a closer look at Caffa II. We dove into the atmosphere a bit and found that there appears to be a shipwreck under a large odd mountain. We do not know if it is human or Xeno but we will have to keep it in mind as another possible trade piece for resources of the mechanicus. As we were coming out of the atmosphere we scanned two power signatures. There were two ships in the system, small fast ships, a cobra, and a sword class, showing Xeno tech on them. Despite being Navy ships those were not friendly. We decided to keep quiet and drift in on them. It worked out well. We disabled the smaller cobra class with a few volleys and then went after the sword class. The ships matched the ships known to belong to the Navy defector Haight Leavigne and it made some sense that he would come back and pick over what was left of the colony. We fired on his flagship, The Navy’s Folly. We got a few hits on him, and the system ship took out his maneuvering thrusters so he made an emergency jump to the warp. We did not take him out but that trip into the warp was probably not fun if not deadly. I Had the choir put out a general message that Leavigne had been engaged, was down two ships and his flagship was damaged. That should make him go to ground for a time if he made it out of the warp. Next was to deal with the cobra, we voxed over that crew would be spared if the command crew was turned over. After a deal with some xenos we got control of the ship and the captain gave us all the command codes.  
I would like to say a pirate was responsible for the destruction of the colony but I knew that was not true. Or what we found on the cogitators was xeno or chaos but it wasn’t. The mechanicus was responsible. Leavigne’s ships lured off the system ships, thrashed them, the colony called for help and my father answered. Zalavant had the unenviable task of informing me my father and brother died on the bridge of the Bolt. The pirates lured my father to his death with the help of the mechanicus. They let the colony call for help and then destroyed it so they could not warn my father. I do not know what else to say about this. It was heinous, brutal, and devastating.

We took the cobra, salvaged a gellar field generator, and got it ready to tow. We fixed the system ship and isolated the xenos we agreed to release. We also liberated 15 millitarum troops that were taken by Levain. I was impressed by the Lt on the bridge, I released her from the slave collar, gave her a weapon and she did not kill the captain because I asked her to spare him for the moment. Sister Celael reminded me it might have more to do with the Sororitas than anything else but it is still to be commended. She knew the millitarum would just kill her upon her return to the Imperium but she obeyed. As a side note, I let them report back in, those who wanted to, and then requisitioned them back from the command at Port Wander.

We took the cobra in tow and went to Lucian’s breath with the backstock of food for that contract. It was a slower trip with a ship in tow but Yoshi again shortened the trip.

  
  


**Lucian’s Breath part II**

I am impressed again with Yoshi. Days knocked off the journey again which helps to get things done. This time we were greeted by the Emperor’s Vow, the flagship of House Winterscale, not what I was expecting. I was also not expecting an invitation for dinner with Calligos Winterscale aboard his ship. As the Emperor’s Vow was a grand cruiser 4 times the size of the Artemis it was best to accept. Pari advised to be calm, not rise to the likely threats, veiled or not, and be neutral. I think I accomplished that and dinner was pleasant. Calligos expressed some ‘sorrow’ at the loss of an honorable rogue trader such as my father, and I could tell he was feeling me out as the new head of the house. He did not interfere with my delivery or pick up of cargo and we made our way to Footfall again.

Calligos seems a man full of sound and fury, but I am not sure how much is behind it all. I recall Winterscale and Chorda have been engaged in this ‘pissing contest’ for a long time. I would think someone would just end it through force or negotiation. Perhaps they like the fight, or it is an old deep slight, either way, I will be staying out of it. If they want to kill each other then they can do so on their own.

**Footfall part II**

We arrived, again ahead of estimates, at Footfall. The dockmaster had some of the requested supplies already. I did not want to stay too long in port so I did not give leave this time. I ‘sold’ the information about House Awl’s ship being destroyed but there had been no more information about if there was an heir to that warrant, not that it is worth much as the shreds it is. Upon returning to the docks I was met by my dock master who was in a bit of a state. He said there was a woman waiting to see me in his office. What he did not tell me was that she was an Inquisitor, Keterlyn Maurer of Ordos Hereticus. Not a huge concern to myself as a Sister but a concern as a Rogue Trader. I invited her aboard to speak privately and let my dock master relax. Masters at hiding who they are, Inquisitors, in a few moments she looked more like a Famulous than an inquisitor. In my study, she asked me if I could give information on the Cold Trade. She was not interested so much in what but who was bringing ‘dangerous’ items into the Imperium. I am not sure why she thought a Sister would be approached about ‘those types’ of deals but I and the house have served the greater good of the Imperium so I agreed. I hope I do not live to regret that choice. I was given 5 servo skulls, 3 appear ‘normal’ and appropriate to a Sister of Battle. The other two look like someone servitorized Xenos, Orc and Eldar from the look of them. The 2 might get me invited to ‘those kinds of parties’ but we shall see. I have so much more immediate on my plate and there are many players out here in the expanse that will need to feel me out first. It was also a bit alarming that the skulls were already on my ship. I will need to speak with Pari about security and skills of observation of the crew.  
I arranged with the dockmaster to start repairs on the cobra which I have renamed The Actaeon. I asked that the ghost light battery be removed and I would pick it up when I returned to go back into the Calixis Sector. I left word to speak with Saul or a representative for Saul about some assistance filling the food order for Chorda. 

**Caffa part II**

We returned to Drucilla and again, Yoshi held to the short trip. We got the new water system set up and set a code for the vox channel since the colony has no choir at the moment. I had thought to check out Gloriana but it was more to see if the Bolt was there but I now knew where it was. We took a little time to plan what we were going to do when we headed into the sector. Pari and I went through losses, made lists, and killed a few bottles of Ambrose wine. I lost my family and so did she. I have known her most of my life but when angry she is a different woman. I am glad she is on my side and looking out for me and the house. We talked about what was lost, how we can recover information and a little dip into plans for what we would like for the colony rebuild.

**Footfall part III**

The return to footfall was a fast trip again. He may be a young cocky navigator but he is proving he can walk the walk. Luckily Saul was not using the second dock so we could pull into our own dock. I did not give leave as I did not want to be here long. The ghost light battery was off the cobra and waiting in the warehouse for me. I took a set of the maps from Levain’s ship to the Navy. They may not be of much use to them but if they can translate them they will have Levain’s stomping grounds and at least shake him up some more. I had a message in return from a representative from Saul. I met with his captain who was authorized to deal on behalf of the house. They wanted a deal on foodstuffs for his ships which I was more than happy to give. I arranged for them to do the run twice with the understanding that it might only need to be done once. I would pay twice no matter, gave the codes and vox channel, and let him know the colony had no choir at the moment. None of it seemed to be an issue and I expressed gratitude for the assistance. 

The only thing left was to head into the sector and to the Lathes. Pari and I had agreed the best start was to black-box all of the information we had and leave it with the Abbess on Scintilla. We did this in case the Lathes decided it was easier to disappear House Ambrose. If the abbess did not hear from me in 2 years she was to turn the box over to the Inquisition. I also needed to see about a Famulous. I needed an heir but very little time to mess about finding a ‘father’. 


	2. Recompence and Penance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are always consequences to actions and the Mechanicum is going to find out what their actions will cost them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings

Into the Calixis Sector

A fast transit through the maw to Port Wander, we needed to make a stop here and allow the millitarium soldiers to report in. Only about half wanted to report in but I had them all go, report in and then I requisitioned them back. I understand they worked with pirates and xenos but 15 people were 15 I did not have to find later. They had training and could find home, work, and if they felt it was needed, penance serving House Ambrose. The commander did not put up a fight, he just wanted to debrief them and we were back to the ship in a few hours. I was not back on the ship long when I got a message about a magos and 2 others who had snuck on board and were seen heading for the engine room. I had security follow them and the sisters and I moved to block their path. We caught them a few decks before the engine room, and I just fired. A burst of bolter bullets took off the Magos’s arm, one of the other sisters took off his other arm. One of his assistants was killed and the other severely wounded by the Sisters. The Magos had a tube on his back with sigils and markings on it. Janus did not dare guess what was in it but when Zalavant probed the Magos’s mind and explained the box the tube came from Janus was a bit horrified. He explained that it was a bit of scrap code with a warp taint. It could be let loose in a machine and open a door to demons from the warp. Zalavant read that is was to have been placed in the Gellar field generator. Janus explained that this type of scrap code was heretical to the mechanicum as well as the inquisition; it would also most certainly have resulted in death of us all. I acquired some stasis caskets to keep them in and present them as more evidence, with this attempt we did not linger at Port Wander.  
The next stop was Scintilla and the abbey I was trained. I planned to ask the abbess to hold a black box of evidence with her, with the instructions that if she did not hear from me in two years or she heard of my demise all of it should go to the inquisition. I also needed to arrange for a Famelous. Pari and Yoshi reminded me I needed to have an heir since I was the last Ambrose. I did not have the time to search for a consort or husband and honestly as I reflect I am not sure I want one. My parents loved each other and us but I believe my understanding of what I thought my destiny was to be I put the idea of family from my mind and heart. This is, of course, what I think right now at this point in my path and my thoughts may change. None of this changes the fact of needing to have another of Ambrose blood to carry on this storied house. It took some time and interviews to find two who could and would work with me. One was to be an advisor as I had lost my family who would have filled that roll and the other would have the duty of finding a match for donation and a surrogate to carry the child. I had decided that the child would be raised on Piety of Seth. A famelous and child would not be out of place there or uncommon. They would be safe, on a holding belonging to the family and raised in a pious environment. I have some small fear of having a useless noble as a child though Sarene, my advisor, reminded me children are a product of environment. I hope that being separate from my child for their early years does not leave us strangers to each other. Imone suggested I leave letters, videos and gifts with her for my child, and that I come into the sector to see them on occasion as my life allowed. I want to fulfill this request. I remember time spent with my father or mother reading to us, showing us the ledgers for the house assets, teaching us what being a true servant of the Imperium looks like. Writing about this seems odd but seeing as there is a whole order of the Sisters dedicated to matchmaking and the like speaks to it being a common practice. I will admit to feeling a bit foolish having a surrogate carry the child, with as much time as I have been sitting here waiting for various meetings I could have easily carried it myself. I think in the future I will bear my own children but this was probably the best way to ensure the continuation of House Ambrose.  
We established a recruitment house on Scintilla while we were there. We bought a hotel block from a noble needing to pay off gambling debts quickly. The Actaeon will need crew, the system ships, the transports and colonists; so many colonists would be needed to put us back to where we were. There was also a choir and navigators needed for these ships and the colony. I acquired another transcendent, Isidora Ambel, a pious woman who would lead the choir on Drusilla and 30 choir members. Isidora does not have any apparent mutations, quiet and demure but a skilled singer. Watching her with the choir members was interesting; she leads with quiet strength and, like Zalavant, is a devout pious servant of the God Emperor. I gave Yoshi reign to find navigators, he would know better who would fit our needs. I gave him the second set of Levain’s maps as a bargaining chip, which should appeal to his house. We need a number of them but the priority is to get navigators for the Actaeon so it can go back to Caffa. There are other things we need but it is worth waiting to see how we are made whole from this whole mess.  
Speaking to what has happened to my father, the Cassian’s Bolt and the colony on Drusilla, I cannot speak of it here in this journal. I will pen a complete account of events for the house rogue trader’s eyes only. As with many such agreements of this nature they are to be kept between the parties and not for general distribution. House Ambrose has a few of these agreements and, at this point, I do not know specifics on them. I just know the results. Dear descendants reading this account know that this was a hard path to follow in this matter. Pari summed up events well; “ I hate that I must place a value in Thrones Gelt of my leigelord and my father. I would rather write a list of lives to end screaming at the pyre. I will do my duty, but ask that if possible, the one who ordered this attack against us be excoriated by as painful a process as can be imagined until his soul is consigned to the burning hell of the Warp.” I will ask for penance for the ringleaders and it will be painful, but as I have written this will be part of a different account.  
The next stop was the Lathe Worlds; I will start with Lathe Hadd. Lathe Hadd lost people and knowledge with the research colony so I may find an ally in them. I will need a good working relationship with a Lathe and if I can foster trust and make our relationship lucrative this could work out well for us both. My nerves are shot right now. If the Mechanicum wants me out of the way and to forget this I have no doubt it could happen. I thought the training I received would be used in battle to power through impossible odds, negotiation is not where I thought I would need it. We docked at the Hadd Excipio Station and were greeted by a Factor. They were pleasant and seemed to understand that I would need someone higher up the food chain, and we waited. Dealing with the Lathes was a lot of waiting. I would never complain, I know it takes time to sift through the bits of information we gave them. If Janus was unwilling to touch some of the things without much more in the way of safety measures I can see how the Lathes will want to be cautious. We went through two Factors before reaching the oddly personable Forge Master Villem Warik Wahh the forge master of Lathe Hadd. They were more human appearing and a bit gregarious. I found them pleasant to deal with though I know I was being ‘handled’. They were not overt or forceful about it and they seemed to be aware that I was aware which lent to the understanding we came to. We were on the same page and they agreed that things looked pretty damning for Belecain. They took the bodies, scrap code and cogitators and had their reclimators work through the data, from that point on I had nothing but a load of data files and the black box. After a time I was informed the High-Fabricator was coming to review everything, it would be five days till he arrived and I was invited into the Lathes, an honor and privilege not lost on me. We were also given a signal to transmit while the negotiations were ongoing; it stated that House Ambrose and the Artemis were under the protection of Lathe Hadd. That eased my mind as it stated publicly that Hadd would be held to this protection and this transmission was their word. With this I decided that Pari, the two younger sisters and myself in a less militant dress was in order, to keep things friendly and calm. The cards of the Inquisition and the black box were already on the table so there was no need to keep waving them in the Mechanicums face.  
Over the five days Forge Master Wahh and I had many chats on all sorts of topics. My plans for the colony, what we might need sooner rather than later, wishes for myself and the command crew, even topics of philosophy and humanity. They were rather odd considering to whom I was speaking. Octavian and Janus were precise, mechanical; there was not a lot of humanity, as I know it left in them. They have more in common with a bolter or the cogitators of the ship than myself, not that I dislike them but they are what I have come to expect of mechanicum. Wahh dances somewhere in between and I find it curious. I believe we have come to a good working relationship and they were pleased to have received the Ghost Light battery to study. The offer of first right of refusal also pleased them. Rogue traders were on the fringes of civilization and often found arceotech pieces and xeno tech. I held the gravity shield generators and the shipwreck back to use later.  
When the High-Fabricator arrived it was in the Fleet Breaker. I had only heard the tales of the ship and they did not even begin to touch the size or raw power of the actual ship. Zalavant had expressed some fear of another attempt being made on me or us, after hearing the reputation of the ship we now hung in the shadow of he felt that if shots were fired it would not be at us, and if they were Belecain would be a smoking hulk. Again I meditated, anointed my skin with oils and prayers, dressed and headed into the political fray. Only Pari, Yoshi, Janus, the two younger Sisters were with me for this meeting. The Arch-Magos Ralwure did not seem to like my ties to the Inquisition and my title of Constinia seemed to stick in his throat when I was announced to the High-Fabricator. There was discussion of the evidence, Zalavants mind was probed to ensure nothing was being fabricated or he was being paid to say what he did. No one had come right out and said it was Belecain but they all agreed it did point that direction. I was surprised when I requested that we go to Belecain with no warning to confront the Forge Master. I did not want to give them any time to hide or destroy anything, which considering that last attempt at Port Wander had not gone off they might already know I was in the sector and not harmed. The High-Fabricator agreed and said we would be accompanying them. Which has caught this tale up to this point. Pari and I are finishing dinner and a bottle of Ambrose wine. The only words we have said to each other over this meal is about being closer to some kind of justice. I think we both feel there is nothing anyone can offer us that will replace our families, the only thing we can hope for is to be made whole as a business and a gelt price put on lives that, in our eyes, are priceless. After she leaves I find I cannot sleep and quietly enter the cathedral to try and find some comfort in meditation. A few crewmembers are in quiet meditation, one touches my hand as I walk past them and I return the gesture with a quiet word of praise. They look at me like they looked at my father. Am I as grand a being as he was? I think I understand the feeling of being on the cusp of a grand battle, the turmoil of fear, elation, and adrenalin. I am terrified. I stand on the edge of ruin and grandeur. The full scope of the path I have chosen lies before me. I could have plunged the Calixis into war by going, rightfully, to the Inquisition. This negotiation might be seen as cowardly or heretical. I hope I have done what is best for the house, the sector and the Imperium and honestly, only history will tell that.

Side Note: Command Crew Security

While in our many days of waiting Yoshi invited Pari and I to tea in the Navigators quarters. I assumed this was a chance to get to know us better. I know I have been a bit arm's length and trying to get feet back under us, and Pari is a chameleon if you do not know her well; she has a knack for seeming harmless, demure, seneschal, she is anything but harmless. We accepted of course and Pari said I should probably spend some time getting to know the command and key crewmembers better.   
The tea was a ceremony and I appreciated the meditation of it. I preferred a spiced coffee preparation as a meditation for my own free moments but tea had the same sort of ritual. We talked about some trivialities and then Yoshi got to a point he had been dancing around. He had, while on Scintilla, dropped a bug in the ear of his house about moving any interests from Belecain. He explained he was concerned that more of his family might suffer if the hammer got dropped on Belecain. A reasonable fear and I could sympathize if fear did not just grip my belly. I did not need to see the written contract of restitution to know there would be a clause or non-disclosure and the punishment for disclosure would be death, explicitly stated or implied. I expressed the sympathy and tried to politically and politely express dismay at the possibility of this undoing everything we were working on. I am not sure I succeeded. When Pari and I departed she pulled me to my quarters in a manner I knew she needed to speak. When we were alone she turned to me with a look of scolding, of herself as well as me. ‘Command crew security’ she said and I closed my eyes, my head thumped the wall behind me. We had not agreed on any kind of rules for what was sharable and what was house only information, a stupid error that might have cost us dearly here. Pari and I quickly hashed out some rules and she said she would address this. There had been so much to get things moving to the expanse and figuring out what had happened this little piece had been missed. Damn stupid error on my part! We will just have to hope for the best and set the rules going forward. To my descendants reading this, do not forget the small things.


	3. Compact of recompence and the explanation of what happened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is for the Rogue Trader's eyes only. It is a brief timeline of events and the compact struck between house Ambrose and the Mechanicum of the Calixis Sector. It includes the Lord Captain's account and the compact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No warnings
> 
> Special thanks to the GM William Asher for the Compact

This is an account from Lord Captain Amber Elaine Ambrose, Rogue Trader, Constantia Litha of the Bloody Rose, of the ‘incident’ referred to in the The Compact of Restitution. This account is for the Lord Captain, Rogue Traders eyes only. This compact and incident are not to be discussed with anyone under pain of death.

First, I will explain why I chose to handle this in the manner in which I did. The Ambrose family was active in the founding of the Calixis sector and is invested in the sector growth and continuation within the Imperium. To that end I decided to risk going to the Lathes to give them an opportunity to address the issue. If I were to go to the Inquisition the sector would surely explode in war. Inquisitors would confront the Mechanicum, in a less than friendly manner and that kind of energy would lead to blows. No one; not the sector, not the Inquisition, not the Mechanicum, not the Imperium and definitely not House Ambrose, would come out of such a war a winner. There would be death and destruction which might destroy the sector. It might seem foolhardy to seek restitution from the Mechanicum but I did not think the whole of the Mechanicum was responsible and the small sect who was responsible would need to be exposed to the whole. I write this account shortly after the compact was signed and I hope I have done the best thing for all parties.

This all started before my birth, with the gift of the large stasis holds that grace the Cassian’s Bolt. Generally, archeotech goes to Mars and the Mechanicum to study and hopefully reproduce, but in this case the holds went to the House of Ambrose for service to the Imperium. There is another agreement in our archives about this gift and I, at the time I pen this account, have not read and do not know the details. Over time ancestors have been asked for the holds and the answer has always been no. This was out of no malice on the House of Ambrose’s part, the holds were and will be part of our business as traders, and we did not want to lose that piece of our business. Unfortunately for my father, Lord Captain Khalid Omar Ambrose, lost his life to the conflict over these holds, along with two brothers, a sister and mother. I will now relate events as we understand they happened.

Approximately 30yrs ago, from the date of this log, the last offer for the holds came to my father Lord Captain Kahlid Omar Ambrose. He was offered a Lunar Class cruiser fit out with exceptional technology as could be produced in the Calixis sector at that time. My father refused the offer which we now know signed his death warrant. These offers all came from Belecane, the forge word whose specialty was stasis. No other offers or communications were recorded on my father’s part or I found none in the records of the Cassian’s Bolt.   
I was informed approximately two years ago that the prow of my father’s ship, Cassian’s Bolt, was found at the Battlefield in the Maw. The Rogue Trader who found the prow was contracted by the house seneschal in sector to try and make contact with the ship and colony. They got no answer so both were assumed lost and I, as the heir, was informed at the Adepta Sororitas Abby on Scintilla. The Adepta Sororitas released me from my service granting me the rank of Constantia and allowed me to leave and see if I could find my family or keep the Ambrose Rogue Trader house running and in the service of the Imperium.  
After pulling the house’s secondary ship into the yards for refit I took it out to Port Wander and Footfall to see if I could find out when my father had gone missing and what had happened. Both ports filled in the timeline some but it was in the Caffa system we found the real clues. We found a pirate ship, The Seed Crystal, and the system defense ships on the edge of the system in what appeared to be a diversion. After pulling data from the cogitators on the Seed Crystal we confirmed that is what had happened. It was unclear what the diversion was for though we knew the results, the colony had been leveled. There were only the agricultural outposts left. Leadership on the colony was to be commended for keeping things together and keeping on in the absence of the Lord Captain Rogue Trader. As we worked in the system to put some things back together and explore an anomaly on Caffa II two pirate ships showed up in the system. One was swiftly disabled by the Artemis while the other ship made an emergency jump to the warp with no maneuvering thrusters and some other damage. All three pirate ships belonged to the X-Navy captain Hate Levain, and they had been hired to be a diversion.   
Dear descendant and Rogue Trader after me, know that the next piece is the important part of the puzzle and the part that is to be kept to yourself. It pains me even now to write who it was who hired the pirates but it must be recorded for you, my descendant, to understand why things are as they are now. The Forge World of Belecane was responsible for the pirates, the diversion, the deaths and the theft of Cassian's Bolt. The distraction the pirates provided was for an exploited fleet to attack, allow a call for help, then destroy the colony to lure my father into the system. Once the Cassian’s Bolt arrived the pirates, aided by mechanicum, boarded and took the Cassian’s Bolt killing everyone aboard.  
Finding all of this information I decided we needed a little assistance in sifting the data we had accumulated. Speaking with the house exploritor we decided their home world of Lathe Hadd would be a safe place to begin. They had processed everything they could with the limited resources on the Artemis and we needed more extensive laboratories and libraries to be sure Belecane was the responsible party.  
Once at Lathe Hadd our fears and observations were confirmed. The Forge Master of Hadd contacted the High Fabricator and I found myself in the presence of the High Fabricator and within the three main Lathe worlds of the Calixis sector, a privilege not often extended to outsiders. Again, evidence was reviewed, we were questioned and losses reviewed. I was bold and asked that a fleet go to Belecane before they got a chance to hide evidence of their crimes as there had been a number of attempts on my person and the Artemis. The High Fabricator agreed and a fleet of 30+ ships, including the High Fabricators ship, the fleet breaker as it was called, went to Belecane. As we came to the planet we noted a Lunar Class cruiser in an orbital dock that fit the profile of the Cassian’s Bolt. I had a factor on board and pointed the ship out to him and he agreed that it was most probably my father’s cruiser. I was invited aboard the High Fabricator’s ship, the Iron Promise, to take a shuttle to the surface and speak to the forge master of Belecane.  
This meeting did not go at all like I thought it would. The forge master was in a vita-tank as he was into his 5th century of age and frail. We were escorted into a large hall with the vita-tank sitting in the middle of it and ‘spoke’ with the being in the tank, so we thought. My exploriter whispered to me that something seemed off and he wanted my leave to do something a bit ‘rude’ and unorthodox but he felt it was needed. I gave my consent and held my breath. It turned out the forge master of Belecane had been dead for 30 some odd years! In his death they had lost some ability to manufacture stasis components and had been trying desperately to recover the ability. The theft of my father’s ship was part of that desperate effort. The High Fabricator asked us to leave as there were internal mechanicum matters to address, so we returned to the shuttle for an hour or so before the Hadd Factor returned. We were to return to the Artemis, Belecane had accepted all responsibility for the actions against the colony and my father, the Cassian’s Bolt was being cleared of Belecane staff and I could board in a day with the High Fabricator to prove ownership and assess what was missing.  
At the time of penning this account I have been given back the Cassian’s Bolt, though it will be at Lathe Hadd for a number of years to put it back together. Only two relics are missing the Lorca of Koron, power armor made for the first Rogue Trader of the house by the UltraMarines, and Roar of Courage, a bolter gifted to the first Rogue Trader of the house by the UltraMarines. Some journals and texts are missing though I may not know for years. how many and what, if ever. The cogitators were wiped of the information just prior to the attack so there are some pieces left out of this puzzle but the picture is still very complete.   
Lord Captain Kahlid Omar Ambrose and Huran Muhr Ambrose died on the bridge of the Cassian’s Bolt, as seen via my astropath transcendent Zalavant Creshna. My mother and second brother probably died in the colony. Approximately 4.5 million colonists died to lance strikes and subsequent explosion of the colony fusion plants. I, Amber Elaine Ambrose Rogue Trader, Constantia Litha of the Bloody Rose, am the sum of storied House of Ambrose. I swear to this account of the ‘incident’ referred to in the Compact of Restitution. 

May the God Emperor's Light continue to shine on the Imperium.  
The Compact of Restitution

In accordance with the judgement of the High Forgemaster of the Lathes and the agreement between the Adeptus Mechanicum of the Calaxis Sector and House Ambrose, the following terms are binding on the parties of this agreement. In recognition of the grievous injuries done to House Ambrose in violation of existing agreements between said House and the Adeptus Mechanicum of the Lathes, the following grants will be made to said House. These grants will be fulfilled by the Forges and forces of Lathe-Hadd. If Lathe-Hadd is unable to meet their requirements, the shortfall will be instead filled by Lathe-Hesh. 

The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to return the Cassian's Bolt to House Ambrose in fully refit condition with the original Archeotech Plasma Drives, Life Sustainers, and Stasis Cargo Bays installed in accordance with their original providence and proper holy alignment. In addition, the ship will be fit in accordance with the desires of House Ambrose to include components of exceptional condition and function within the capability of the Lathe Worlds to produce. The Cassian's Bolt will remain available to House Ambrose during its refit and said refit will not exceed 10 standard Solar years from the signing of this agreement. For each month beyond this limit the ship has not been delivered to the location of House Ambrose choice the Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to pay a Tithe Sero of 10 Billion Thrones. In order to assist the Mechanicum in restoring the Stasis technology to the Imperium and Mechanicum, House Ambrose agrees to allow the Mechanicum to place Magos on board the Cassian’s Bolt and install such equipment to allow such study. In exchange for that agreement, the Mechanicum agrees to provide any and all support and repairs that the Cassian’s Bolt requires. [2 coins per month if not delivered within 10 years, the ship will be fit with a Best quality Laboratorium and Magos for study].  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to return all relics, materials, Archeotech, and items of value taken from House Ambrose. In particular, the Lorica of Konor [Relic Artificer Plate Power Armor] and Victory Laurel granted by the Ultramarine Primarch Roboute Guilliman [in stasis display stand]. Should those items not be found on the Cassian's Bolt, the Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to assign no less than 1000 Tech-Priests and 5 ships of the line to the task of finding and returning said items. Once the Lorica of Konor is found, Lathe-Hadd agrees to fit the armor to a member of House Ambrose as requested by the Head of House Ambrose. Until such time that those two items are returned, the Lathe Worlds agree to pay a Tithe Sero of 50 Billion Thrones Mechanicum in goods, material, or coins to House Ambrose for every year beginning immediately after signing of this compact. [Automatic purchase of up to -30 Acquisition total, starting at signing of Compact and every year thereafter if not returned.]  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide and deliver three system patrol ships of equal or greater value to the destroyed Dart Class System Defense Ships to the Caffa system. Said ships will be delivered in fully refit condition and fully provisioned within 5 years of the signing of this agreement.  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide and deliver two Vagabond Class Transport ships equipped with standard or better components built in accordance to the requirements of House Ambrose to a location of the House's choice within the Calaxis Sector or the Caffa system. Said ships will be delivered in fully refit condition and fully provisioned within 2 years of the request by House Ambrose. In addition, Lathe-Hadd agrees to transfer command authority of one Vagabond Class Transport ship from the Forge World Fleet to serve House Ambrose for the next 100 Solar Years. [Vagabond class ships can include Salvage, Troop Transport, Asteroid Mining, or general Cargo]  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide and deliver one Q-ship built from a standard Transport ship hull in accordance with the requirements of House Ambrose. Said ship will be equipped with standard or better components and delivered to a location of the House's choice within the Calaxis Sector or the Caffa Sytem. Said ship will be delivered in fully refit condition and fully provisioned within 3 years of the request by House Ambrose.  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide materials, Tech Priests, Servitors, and workers to establish a Hive Minoris on Caffa. This support will be utilized in accordance with the wishes of and under the direction of House Ambrose. This support will be provided for 100 Solar Years and not be considered discharged until the Druscilla Agricultural Colony meets the predicted production and population capacity of the Colony prior to the damage inflicted by the 'incident'. The Adeptus Mechanicum will provide Hive city void shields, 4 capitol grade defense lasers, and standard grade ground defense weapons for the agricultural colony hive spire. Should this goal not be met due to fault of the Adeptus Mechanicum, the Lathes agree to pay a Tithe Sero of 25 Billion Thrones Mechanicum in goods or coin per year until this goal is met. [200AP towards every colony Upgrade. +1 on Colony Growth checks every year. Defenses to include Void Shield Array, 4 Sunsear Lance cannons, dozens of multilaser and lascannon turrets for anti-air/vehicle/people defenses and the supporting infrastructure to support them to the hive spire of the Agricultural colony]  
Lathe-Hadd agrees to reestablish a Research Colony on Druscilla that matches or exceeds the original colony capability and responsibilities in accordance with the original colony contract. In addition, Lathe-Hadd agrees to provide Tech Priests and materials to produce 3 additional colony improvements of House Ambrose's choice on any Colony desired in the Caffa system. Said colony is to provide Tech Priests as needed to support House Ambrose operations in the Caffa system for a minimum of 100 Solar Years. [Lathe-Hadd will establish the initial colony and a Mechanicum Station upgrade. Lathe-Hadd and House Ambrose will split discoveries and profit from the colony (per the original colony charter), with House Ambrose having the right to monitor and choose half of any discovered valuables and receiving a copy of all knowledge generated. After that, Lathe-Hadd will provide 200AP towards every colony Upgrade. +1 on Colony Growth checks every year]  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide transport for up to 5 Million colonists, crew, or troops from a location specified by House Ambrose to a location of choice in the Caffa system. This agreement may be discharged in any portion over the next 100 Solar Years or until the Agricultural Colony on Druscilla has reached its agreed goal, whichever is longer. The transfer of any remaining colonists not requested by the end of this period are forfeit.   
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide a Goliath Class Transport fit with mobile space docks for use by the House Ambrose in to support operations in a system of choice for the next 100 years. Said ship will be crewed by the Adeptus Mechanicum, but under the control and authority of House Ambrose. [The ship is fit with space docks and massive cargo areas, this makes it a portable space dock that can repair ships up to Cruiser class and build ships up to Frigate class]  
The Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide 2 Secutor Class Cruisers to provide protection for House Ambrose assets for the next 100 Solar Years. These ships will be crewed by the Adeptus Mechanicum, but under control and authority of House Ambrose. [These ships will follow orders of House Ambrose to protect colonies, convoys, or other assets]  
In recognition of the lost knowledge, experience, expertise and history of House Ambrose, the Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide House Ambrose with 10 Stasis devices no larger than 'Savior-Class' per Solar year from now and until perpetuity. For 100 Solar Years the Adeptus Mechanicum agree to provide a Tithe of 25 Billion Thrones Mechanicum per year in the form of coin, materials, or goods. In addition, House Ambrose is released to produce goods in their manufactorum equal to the rights of a Hive World Majoris. [5 extra coins per year, 10 Stasis devices of up to Hulking size per year, Ability to purchase any 'Hive World item' from your colony (at +10 Availability). This is the highest allowed level of production other than Space Marines or Inquisitorial authorities]   
In recognition of the lost future of Lady Ambrose, the Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to provide the Caffa colony with the support and manufactories necessary to establish an Adeptus Sororitas convent. House Ambrose will remain responsible for recruiting and assembling Ministorium support for said missions. Said support will be established once the colony can support such an endeavor. [Ability to purchase any 'Sororitas items' from your colony (at +10 Availability), 300 AP towards establishing a Sororitas Abbey].  
In recognition of the lost income and assets of House Visscher serving House Ambrose, the Adeptus Mechanicum agrees to pay a tithe directly to the representative of House Visscher [currently Yoshi Haru] of 10 Billion Thrones per year for the next 100 years. The representative of House Visscher agrees that this compact consists of an acceptable restitution for their losses during the ‘incident’ and agrees to be held to the conditions applicable to House Ambrose in this combat. In addition, the Explorator fleets of Belacane will surrender maps of the Heathen Stars to House Visscher. [Detailed maps of all major routes and basic maps to every other star in the Heathen Stars, 2 coins per year]  
In recognition of the great boon House Ambrose has given to the Adeptus Mechanicum to by helping to advance the Quest for Knowledge, the Adeptus Mechanicum grants House Ambrose an Honor Guard drawn from the highest ranks of the Crimson Guard of the Lathes numbering no less than 30 Skitarii at all times for now and until perpetuity. [Grants a Best Quality Stormtrooper group to whatever ship is the House Ambrose flag ship]  
Recognizing that there is no forgiveness without penance, those Magos who in full knowledge ordered the violation of the Adeptus Mechanicum oaths are hereby stripped of all rights, augmentation, honors, and rank and to be turned over the House Ambrose for punishment or penance as they see fit. [12 Magos in a variety of disciplines, including 2 who can make Stasis devices of some sort. The Mechanicum will provide them in the condition House Ambrose requests, from a brain in a life support unit to a regrown flesh body in a Penitent Engine]

In recognition of the injuries done to House Ambrose by the Forge World of Belacane, all materials and reparations provided to House Ambrose will be provided by Lathe-Hadd. In recognition of the significant loss of resources accepted by Lathe-Hadd on behalf of the Adeptus Mechanicum of the Calaxis Sector and the damages inflicted on Lathe-Hadd by Belacane, Belacane will relinquish all materials, STCs, information, and Magos associated with Stasis technology to Lathe-Hadd for stewardship and production. In recognition of the breaking of an Oath that predates their Forge World Belacane is also stripped of the authority to operate, build, have, or receive any benefit Explorator fleets for the next 100 years and until the High Forgemaster of the Lathes judges them worthy of participating in the Quest for Knowledge again. All such Explorator Fleets in current operations will have their contracts and allegiance to Lathe-Hadd permanently. For the next 100 Solar Years, Belacane will provide 4.5% of all Calaxis Sector munitions requirements for the Imperial Navy (increased from 2.1%) as penance. 

House Ambrose agrees that the grants included in this compact consist of an acceptable restitution by the Adeptus Mechancium of the Calaxis Sector for the violation of any previous agreements or actions against House Ambrose by the Adeptus Mechanicum. This compact will remain a matter of confidence between House Ambrose and the Adeptus Mechanicum of the Calaxis Sector. Should either party determine that the compact has been violated, both parties agree to first contact the other party to resolve the dispute prior to contacting any outside party. Any attack by either party on the other (to include assassination attempts, military actions, or economic warfare) relieves the aggrieved party of the responsibility to maintain the confidence of this agreement. Belacane agrees to remove any assets from any system of vessel controlled by House Ambrose. In addition, Belacane agrees to cede right of way and avoid contact with all aspects of House Ambrose from now and in perpetuity. Should hostile contact occur between House Ambrose and the Forces of Belacane, Belacane agrees to withdraw and being any disputes before the Lathes for resolution.


	4. Now we Rebuild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The deal has been struck and now the rebuilding of the Ambrose holdings. Lord Captain plans the rebuild of a colony and ponders her life as the Rogue Trader and not a Battle Sister

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No Warnings.

Scintilla: after the compact was enacted

I sit with a glass of some flowery liquor that arrived at the Artemis with some note about success in business ventures from a noble family name that I do not immediately place and really do not care about. The whole thing was a bit a blur and I believe I have read and reread the terms about a thousand times. Licking the sweet biting liquid from my lips I stare at the parchment laying on my desk across the room. I was at the Lathes for a month or so after the compact was signed, getting some upgrades to the Artemis, hunting through my father’s study on the bolt and shopping with Lathe Hadd. The gravity shields from the Seed Crystal outfitted the Artemis with some better drives and was a point toward the relationship with Hadd. I took advantage of the time and upgraded mine and the sister’s armor and the command crew acquired some gear as well. Janus and I spent some funds on getting what we would need to explore the wreck on Caffa II without revealing what it was for to Hadd just yet. The Factor that had been assigned to handle my requests went over how to do purchasing via the agreement, quite simple really just bill to a different account in my name that would be paid via Hadd and the Mechanicum. It was hidden to anyone casually looking into the account, it looked like just an account of mine for in sector purchases. Getting back to Scintilla I found just how fast the Mechanicum propaganda engine was, I have had several social invitations and even the abbess seemed to know of my success.  
So now I sip this gifted liquor and look at the stack of pretentious parchment invitations, sketches of clothing, architectural plans and journals littering my study and wonder. . . Am I staying true to House Ambrose? What would my father have done with all of the information? Would he have struck the deal I have or would he have gone to the Inquisition? Pari has said, gently but firmly, that the house is now mine and every Rogue Trader shapes the house in their own fashion. All I have known of House Ambrose was how my father had shaped it and lived it. The libraries on the Bolt look to be mostly intact but it will take me decades to put them back in order and glean anything but the bare basics from my ancestor’s words.   
I did find the copy of an ancient terran book father used to read to us from, 1001 Arabian Nights. I hope to read to my own children as he did. We would curl up at his feet in the library and he would read to us and we would all dream of the sandy lands, colorful markets and heroes of the stories. Now that I am older I see how my ancestors were captivated by this text. Perhaps it reminded them of home or imagined it to be home on terra.   
Ugh this flowery drink is nauseating! How do nobles stomach this garbage? Tomorrow I have appointments with the abbess to talk about getting the mission restarted and finding an architect to take on such extensive projects. There are artisans to acquire and people, so many people. Pilgrims, colonists, crafts people and everything to support them in the time it is going to take to rebuild. And here is Serane with another invitation and reminding me I should go and make connections for possible business. All the pretentious nobles are going to ask about is snap berries and when to expect them, gossip about other nobles and gawk at the rogue trader in town. Only the Lord Captain a little more than a year and I long for the expanse! It’s simpler out there; ships are either friends or foes and planets that are empty or with colonies to be brought back into the Holy Imperium. Pari recommended I take some of the command crew, which honestly makes sense. Yoshi is far better at the social niceties and Zalavant would make a serious statement about me as a Sister and Rogue Trader. I will have to see if I can get a few days for myself in here. I could use a few days to just not be the Rogue Trader of this house. Honestly I could stand some attention lavished on me for the sake of me not what I can do for whoever is doing the lavishing.

The Abbess and Architect

Stepping into the receiving hall of the abbey was comforting. The scent of incense, quiet chants and the company of the Sisters. Sitting down with the abbess was pleasant even though the relationship between us has changed. Rank and society says she and I are on equal footing if not more in my favor but I still see her as a mentor and teacher. She inquires about the black box and I ask her to keep a hold of it. I am not sure the target is not off my back just yet and safe is better than sorry. She appears pleased that I am consulting with her on the mission and, in the future, and abbey. I am sure she will find some favor in being my mentor and ‘encouraging’ me to keep my ministorium ties strong. I do feel some obligation to the Sororitas. I should be among their ranks but I have been pulled to another path. I want to give back to them what was taken, even though I have no idea what I would have given them as a Battle Sister.  
We talk of my plans and I show her what Forge Master Wahh and I have hashed out as far as the ministorium complex and future abbey. She recommends a few architects but one in particular. She also said if I could get an architect, the Sisters sect that creates and cares for the holy stained glass and relics might be interested enough to add to the project. We talk some more about what would be needed before the Sororitas would think of placing an abbey on Drucilla. She also gives me an update from Imone. I have a daughter. I had given Imone names and allowed her the choice, Nuria Ahdia Ambrose was the one she picked. Nuria was my sister’s name and I thought it an honorable homage to my family lost. I need supplies for the ministorium complex, marble and other such trappings, so we will make a stop at Piety of Seth to acquire such goods and allow me to see my daughter. I also want to leave Imone with a set of Sororitas armor and funds should she need to leave Piety of Seth. I have other gifts for my daughter, things that belonged to me, my sister and her grandmother. Letters, recordings of my terrible reading of stories and pictures of her family. I find I hate leaving her here in the sector but I want to be sure the target is cleared from my back before I bring her to me.  
Next is the architect, and that may yet bite me. Pari made the appointment and went with me to the meeting. He lived high on one of the spires which spoke to how expensive he was going to be. A nymph of an assistant met us at the landing pad and settled us with tea while she informed her master we had arrived. It was a bit of a wait and we had a chance to look around at prints of his work. It was beautiful and elegant, not really the Ambrose style but I knew we were a bit unconventional. Pari observed it looked a bit like he had just settled in here or was moving out of here, it was hard to tell which way it was. When his nymph assistant led us into his office it became more clear he was leaving. Pari and I exchanged looks and I figured she would be looking into what was going on when she got a chance. We made introductions and some small talk before getting into the meat of what I was here for, he seemed interested, very interested when he heard it was out in the expanse. He was not leaving, he was running. We agree on the work and that we can transport him, of course, and his goods. On the way back to the Artemis Pari said she will look into what was going on, a day or so later she comes into my study and sits down. He has been accused and cleared of murder. A piece of sculpture in one of his recent creations fell, crushing a noble and the family was outraged. Arbiters looked into the matter and found it to be a terrible accident and cleared the architect of any wrong-doing, evidently the family was still rumbling. Pari, in her typical mysterious manner, said the statue appeared to have had help ‘falling’ and the younger brother of the dead noble might not have clean hands in this mess. Lovely, I have hired an architect and acquired a possible fight with a noble house here on Scintilla. Pari also reminded me I am a Rogue Trader and possibly on-peer or higher in the food chain than this house was, she had to do a little more looking. Well, we can chat with the architect about that once we get underway home, and depending on how messy this gets.  
I acquired a Sisters group for stained glass and such, silversmiths for the fine work and my next stop is pilgrims. We have tapped out crew for the moment but I might give it another try before we leave. Hab-blocks and a drop temple are on the list as well and some amount of comfort items for the colony as they have been without a major city for a number of years. In a few evenings I am to make an appearance at a party for, I hope I have this correct, a militarum family, a son got a commission as a captain. Pari picked this party for a reason I am sure though I am not going to ask why. Right now I have more fittings for expanding my wardrobe. I had not wanted to delve too deeply into this because I was unsure if I would be remaining as Rogue Trader. As it appears now, I will be and that requires a bit less Sororitas and some more flair, pomp and circumstance. At least this tailor seems to understand I have some modesty and there is a style the Ambrose house favors over the current fashion trends. He grumbles some but seems to be pleased that I ignore the gaudier trims and complex designs that show off more skin but are a seamstress's nightmare to put together. I have leave to use the Fleur de Lis of the Sororitas and I do try to give a nod to the life I had for almost 10yrs.


	5. Rebuilding and Exploring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lord Captian Ambrose returns home to Caffa system. There is much to be done in the organizing of rebuilding and setting up stability for the colony. There are also resources to be explored for the benefit of the house, and the Imperium.
> 
> These are the journals of a Rogue Trader character I, the author, am playing in a RPG Rogue Trader game.

Rebuilding and Exploration

Settling in for the trip back out to the expanse I have time to reflect on the last few weeks/months, warp time is so odd. The architect, Barstow Stephens, was indeed running, but not from anything he actually did. The younger son of House Brulek, a boy Matthias Brulek, wanted to be the sion, not just the second, so he took care of his brother and used the architect, or tried, as a fall guy. When Barstow was not found at fault for the accident well things got ugly. I was at a function at house Helix celebrating a son who got a captain commission when the escape got complicated. I was chatting with the Helix son about what a good captain needed to know when Pari let me know it was time to leave. I made some general comments on knowing your crew and trusting their skills and made excuses to leave. Heading out to my waiting shuttle I got armored up, a noble trying to cover their misdeeds might not be thinking about anything other than the cover-up so it was likely to be a fight. As we headed toward the spire Brastow was busy moving out of, we noted a landing pad with several shuttles on a landing pad nearby, some with Brulek markings. There were a number of arms men around them and Gurny spotted at least two snipers on top of one of the shuttles in chamoline cloaks. The boy was proving predictable but no less dangerous.  
I decided the best thing to do was be a presence there so we landed and the Sisters and I would get Stephens out of the spire, hopefully out of harm's way. Gurney asked to take out one of the snipers, destroy his weapon at least and I gave him leave to do so. He said he was not sure he could get them both before they got shots off so disabling a weapon would help and create a distraction. I went in and kicked people into finishing packing and kept loading the shuttles moving the architect's belongings and staff to the Artemis. The Sisters and I escorted the architect out to the shuttle along with his wife and the snipers of Brulek took a shot at us, narrowly missing Lynahla. She fired a burst from her bolter and one sniper dead. Gurny destroyed the gun on the other sniper so that threat was removed. The shuttle took off and took the architect to the ship and out of the fray. Then there came a knocking on the inner door from the spire, like someone not so gently rapping on the door. I answered it and was met with some pompous boy child, and a number of armsmen, two of which were dressed as Arbiters.  
This could go one of a few ways; the noble boy was polite and we talked this out, the boy could be rude and pick a fight, or they could just shoot us. The noble boy picked a fight. As I stood there in my blood-red Sororitas armor he called me ‘woman’ and ‘whore’, so I punched him. If I did not break his jaw I gave him a reminder of this stupidity that will last a week or so. Some guns were raised but I think his arms men were reluctant to get into a fight with 5 Sisters and a number of arms men in my house livery. I asked Pari to set up a meeting with the boy’s father while I spoke to the two fake Arbiters. The young noble had two of his arms men pretend to be Arbiters, which is a crime, and he did not prepare them to answer questions. I asked why, if they had cleared Stephens of wrongdoing, were they here to question him again and they dithered on an answer. I took the two arms men into custody and the young noble pouted off home, little did he know I had an appointment to speak to his father in the morning.  
The next morning I headed to the Brulek Spire with the Sisters, and command retenue. Lord Brulek received me with his sulking son at his side, and I brought the two fake Arbiters, who were just hired, thugs. After some formalities, the Lord agreed his son was completely in the wrong and behaved poorly. I was given some apartments in Spire Ophelia on Scintilla and the son had to make a sizable donation to the Sororitas Abbey here. I also asked for an apology to me and the architect which the young sion did. Once back on the ship I let the architect Stephens know the matter was settled but he still seemed keen on not returning to Scintilla.  
This might bite me someday as that boy’s father will not live forever, and unless one of his younger siblings does to him what he did to his older brother I will be seeing him again I am sure. I doubt he will forget the punch in the jaw or the humiliation of being caught in such a complete debacle of a scheme. With all of that settled it was very nice to leave Scintilla for Piety of Seth.  
I had been to the Piety of Seth a number of times in my life. There were holidays and pilgrimages made there by my family. We had major holdings there that served the pilgrims and ministorium so whenever we arrived there was a special mass to appreciate benefactors. This trip was no different. There was a benediction of mourning to my family losses, praise to me for keeping the house alive, and blessings for a prosperous future. Imone brought my daughter but sat with nobility and not with me, I did not want to endanger her. I gave leave to the crew and spent most of the two weeks with my daughter. I was not sure if I would feel removed from her since I did not carry her but I bonded with her. She is beautiful and Imone and I talked about how I want her raised. She will be educated and pious, and I decided seeing her I want my children to choose their path, Rogue Trader or Eclesiastary service. My youngest brother really wanted to be a priest for the ministorium but I was the one tithed. I do not want my children to have to settle for what was handed to them. If this little lady wants to be a Sororitas then she can be! She is my first and it would be foolish to have her be the only but I have time. I let Imone with my old set of Sororitas armor and funds should she need anything. I also planned on her coming to me when my daughter was 10. Even if she chooses to be a Battle Sister she will learn the family business as I did. I have not told the crew in general about her, the fewer who know the safer I think for the moment. I will need to trust them at some point but I am taking these steps with caution. Houses rarely crumble under outside forces without having inside corruption. I want to build bonds and trust before such fragile pieces are put into play. My daughter and I are the only ones capable of holding the trade warrant so the longer she is kept secreted, the better.  
I was loathed to leave Piety of Seth but we needed to head home to Caffa and meet with the Mechanicum fleet. They are bringing the bulk of supplies and equipment to break ground on reseating the colony, build the spire, and set us back on the path to being more than an agricultural world. I have been planning the Ambrose estate in the colony with Barstow the architect, panes for stained glass with the Sisters who create and maintain such creations, and working with the Dialogus Sister who is with me to record the Ambrose house language which is a Persian base but far wandered from the ancient Terran language. Sometimes I feel like I am reinventing something that should be already here, or that I am doing something over for no real reason. Other times I feel like I am a brand new Rogue Trader trying to make my name. Pari laughs and tells me I am both at the same time. At times I wish I had a little guidance and it is frustrating to know it is there but on the Cassian’s Bolt in the form of journals. All I can do is wait. Wait to get the Bolt back, wait to get into the journals, wait to get the colony rebuilt and thriving again, just wait.

Caffa System: Drucilla

We jumped between Port Wander, Footfall, and then home to Caffa; all were fast trips and we beat the Mechanicum fleet by three weeks even with the side trip to Piety of Seth. I stopped for a day in Footfall to give the dockmaster news and to expect some mechanicum use of the dock here for the Chorta run and transitions in and out of the sector. Once at Drucilla I gave leave and asked that crew help with the work to be done on the surface and they responded with enthusiasm. I worked with them too. It was good to do some productive, visible work to clear the way for new cathedrals, library, the family estates, and the beautiful city I have in my mind.  
In the clearing of the colony footprint, we found a tunnel that looked ancient and not part of the colony. Janus thought it was on par, age-wise, with the wreck of the colony ship. We took the scitari down with the Sisters and command crew to see what was down there. There was a rail line in the tunnel and it ended at a large airlock type door. Janus was able to get it open and we found a lab. It was a bit hard to tell what it had been for but it appears it was possibly genetics. Possibly crossing and adapting the terran plants to this environment and leading to the terran variations of plants we found on the planet when it was found. The Mechanicum wanted to explore and research this with the colony they are re-setting up at the colony shipwreck, I agreed they could. We did remove a few things for Janus to research and use, a powerful laz rifle of very good make and some information from the lab cogitators.  
We also took the time before the Mechanicum arrived to explore the wreck on Caffa II. This was a bit more work than the lab. It took a little doing to drill down to it and then squeeze into it via a large crack in the aft section near the engine room. There were some hazards like some leaked fuel, and decayed deck plates. The true danger was ‘men of iron’ or ‘silicon abominus’, I am not sure which they were and Janus has offered to teach me something about them and other possible threats on Dark Age ships. It seems some security was active even just passively and we had to destroy some iron men and turrets.  
First find was in the engine room, power armor of sorts that looks like an early version of terminator armor, that we will salvage and take back for study. Next to the armor was a flail that looked like a workbench prototype. When Yoshi picked it up he said it interacted with the warp, calming it. It was also draining to him as he held it. When I took it in hand I felt nothing but it is interesting and we will be holding onto it also. Working further into the ship we found crew quarters; in one of the rooms, we found a data slate type device and got it powered up to get a date, definitely from the dark age. Yoshi was interested in the information on the slate which appeared to be navigation lessons from a time when they did not have navigators like now. Moving on we found the cogitator core room, this is where we had to fight the iron men and some turrets. Once in the cogitator room, it appeared that the halon fire system had gone off but there was no evidence of fire. Malfunction from the crash or deliberate is unclear but there were a couple of what was left of the crew in there. Janus was able to get some information off the core and will be sorting through it over time. Janus thought that if there were STCs here they would be in the cargo hold so that is where we headed next. A bit of climbing and watching for more iron men and security devices. Once at the cargo hold we needed to cut our way in due to the door being warped from impact. Janus seemed amazed at the state of the ship. He thought it should be crushed utterly but it seems to have had a shield or some such that took the brunt of the impact, and from what he said that should be a hell of a lot of brunt! That could be some possibly useful archeotech if it survived and we can find it. In the hold it looked like the gravity locks on crates had not been able to hold the crates or the impact was too much for them and all the crates and cargo were jumbled at the far end of the hold. We popped a few of the locks on the cases and found that yes, rations can go bad after several thousand years. We also found a few pieces of tech, a flak vest with some kind of temperature control and energy shielding, a pistol that used shotgun shell-type ammunition, and other weapons in various states. Then we found a treasure, actual print books! So many of them and books in different forms! There were small devices that seemed to be a reader for books that you could easily pocket and a chest with a genetic or biometric lock on it. Janus did a little study of the lock and managed to get it open and fling the lid so the charge that would destroy the contents did not go off over the case. Inside were crystal tablets. I pulled out the data slate we found in the crew quarters and the tablets fit in the slate port and we could read them. They looked like system reports but it was not clear if it was just information, military reports or research. Janus, Yoshi and the Dialogues are going to review them.  
It took a week to pull the items we immediately found and wanted to keep from the wreck and to the Artemis. I then brought the wreck to the attention of the Lathe Hadd Magos in charge of the research colony, Randice-Lisa Altschul. She was, of course, interested and enthusiastic about having more here to explore and gather knowledge. She did ask that she have the right to destroy the iron men and other items that might be dangerous. I was a little reluctant to give such blanket permission and I believe we struck on the iron men could be destroyed carte blanche but other items were subject to my review and I left her with 5 hulking stasis casks to hold said items. I felt she was not completely happy with this but she agreed. She also seemed upset when I started asking for more information about the iron men and other possible dangers on wrecks and hulks. Janus stopped me from digging much more and explained later that sharing such knowledge was akin to me sharing Sororitas secrets with him. He said he was an exploritor and would teach me what to look for danger and treasure wise in wrecks. It was dancing on a line of betrayal of the mechanicum but it served his purposes so he would do it.  
I have had time to see many faces of the mechanicum in these past months. Octavian is dedicated to the Artemis. He loves that ship like a child or lover, which means she is well cared for and that serves my endeavors. He is content to have no other work than communing with the machine spirit in the Artemis. No other items to research unless it can better his beloved ship. Janus is what many would say is typical of mechanicum, dry, logical, and driven. I have found him to still be capable of thinking outside the mechanicum and what is serving them. As he has said, I take him to interesting places, and if that does not earn you some loyalty with a mechanicum I am not sure what would. Randice-Lisa is a bit odd, and a fellow outcast to Janus but not for the same reasons. She thinks tech should be shared but she balked at teaching me about the iron men. Perhaps I did not make my intent clear to her. I wanted to know what dangers they held and what to look for, and I believe them when they say the iron men are dangerous. And Forge Master Wahh, almost human in action and social graces but forge masters are rarely unaugmented. Why has he retained the social skills that so many mechanicum shed with their flesh bodies? This whole situation with the Mechanicum has been interesting. So much work to do what Belacane did, to try and hide it, and then come after me to make sure it stayed hidden when they could have just asked to study the holds in use. So simple a thing, asking. I doubt any of my ancestors would have objected to a magos on board to care for and study the stasis holds. I have them now here on the Artemis, studying the bridge and life support which are ancient technology. How many conflicts could have been avoided if someone just asked the right question? Philosophy I believe was the ancient Terran study of ideals and their interactions with the world. Perhaps I should read some of those tombs I avoided as a child when I get the Bolt and his vast library back.  
Off to the library of the Artemis now to meet with Serapha, the dialogus who came with me, and Yoshi. We are going to review the crystal tablets and see if we can get a better idea of what they are. I want to look at the crates of books to see what all is there. There looked to be a good mix of stories, technical works, and reports. I have to laugh a bit at myself. An ancient wreck of a dark age ship and I am calling paper bound books the treasure. STCs or other technology still on it will bring thrones to the house but the books are my treasure.


	6. Off to Explore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The exploration begins. The Artemis and Actaeon head off to the Gloriana system, the last know place the former Rogue Trader, Kahlid Omar Ambrose, explored and had an interest in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing logs of Amber Elaine Ambrose, Rogue Trader of House Ambrose.

Setting Off

Finally down to the business of exploration, as a Rogue Trader should be doing. The colony is well underway, the research colony is also about finished, and hanging around in the system accomplishes nothing, so we headed off to Gloriana. My father had mas to this system in the cache so there must be something of interest there. I decided to have the Actaeon accompany us as a bit of extra firepower just in case. I wanted to get a feel for the crew and how things were settling out with the Actaeon, so I planned to spend some time on that ship with the captain.  
The trip was faster than expected but the warp was ‘disturbingly calm’ according to Yoshi. He said it lacked any kind of flow or disturbance which was unusual. Getting into the system we found three planets around a bright new white star. Around the second planet was a huge field of debris! This was of interest but we decided to work our way in and the first planet on that route was the outermost planet. It was a large planet with low gravity, ice fields over a layer of mineral-rich waters. It is possible to mine the metals and radioactive so there is value to be had here. The small asteroid moon is also interesting, there are high corundum readings which means rubies and sapphires, well worth mining.  
The next world on the path was the innermost planet. A large, high gravity world with a toxic atmosphere. There are what were ruins we believe that have been reduced to craters and pools of metal. The very odd part of these ‘pools’ is there is a thick mat of algae type vegetation. It appears to eat biological matter and leaves inert materials in the pools underneath. I tried to walk on it but it either gives under my weight or pulled at me to the point that my fellow sisters had to help me out of its grasp. Fire seems to kill it so it is manageable if we choose to go after the pools of metals. We found a large crystal obelisk that seemed to glow. At this moment we are not sure if the glowing is a property of the crystal or due to the high levels of radiation. The radiation will be an issue if we choose to mine here, both from the young star and the sheer destruction on the planet. It appears the race who lived here used nuclear type batteries in their devices so whoever destroyed them caused a lot of fallout from those batteries getting destroyed.  
The last planet was in the habitable band, low gravity, verdant but a thin atmosphere. There is a strange lack of tectonic activity but a huge volcano. The lava from the volcano is mineral-rich which might make it easier to exploit. I think we will set up a mining outpost on that planet and use it as a base of operations for salvage operations. There is some life here, a large bird-like creature that seems to be one of the apex predators. They stalked us but a couple of bolter shots scared them off. This is the planet surrounded by wreckage from a crusade era battle. There is a huge space station, numerous wrecked ships, pieces of ships, and a few intact hulls. The intact ships include a few Xeno ships, a Pluto Class Mechanicum explorator ship, and an Astartes ship that crashed into the bottom portion of the space station.  
The only ship we explored was the Astartes ship. The markings were for the second legion, to my knowledge the second was one of the legions that were expunged from all records. Serapha, my dialogus, filled me in a bit on the second. They were called the Nox Cats and were expunged from the record during the early part of the crusade. She did not know why and was hesitant to talk much more about it. Janus pulled some information from the Astartes commander’s personal terminal and I will have Serapha review it for more possible battle sites and keep us from running across information we should not know. The ship itself is in fairly good shape. The spine is not broken, most of the systems are repairable and it could be made a very serviceable ship. I will return the armor and personal effects to the Death Watch chapter on Scintilla, expunged or not there is some respect due to Astartes. I will be keeping a set of the armor as a memento of house discovery. There is also a drop gunship that I think I will try and keep. If Death Watch requires I return it I will but it would be a useful tool in exploration and the missionary runs I have been asked to do. There were also some spheres that seemed to be some kind of security. They had no biological material in them and armed with mechadendrites that could, and did, pierce Astartes armor! We will have to clear any more of those on the space station and Xeno ships.  
We did some surveys of the planets and headed back to Caffa to collect the salvage ship to pull the Astartes ship free of the space station and back to Drusilla. While they work on that we will do some more detailed surveys with some mining crews to decide the best site for a mining operation. I will be heading back into the Calxis Sector to return the Astartes gear, gather some mining equipment and miners.  
We also found in a few places a sandy substance that seemed to be the source of the strange warp calming. It is grey, not radioactive, and has a warmth to it. Yoshi and Zalavant felt drained after interacting with it. Some of my crew also felt drained but not as much as Yoshi and Zalavant. We took samples back for the Mechanicum to study. I am not sure this sand will be worth anything but it does have an interesting effect on the warp.

Personal Reflections

I feel like things are settling into a rhythm. Questions have been answered, penance arranged and the Mechanicum has made good on promises thus far. I can put the shift of destiny behind me and move forward as the Rogue Trader for the House of Ambrose. I see the colony shaping up and am hopeful. I made arrangements for Imone to bring my daughter to me after her 10th birthday. She will learn as I did, by living the life of a rogue traders family. I should think of a consort or more children. I have plans for my own estate on Drusilla to review and approve. This is my life now. I look forward to building an abbey for the sororitas or at least and manufactorum to create their gear. I look forward to teaching my daughter about our history and life.  
I am a little anxious about taking this Astartes gear back to Scintilla. Death Watch is part of the Inquisition and I am returning gear from an expunged legion, I do not know what kind of reception to expect. I am doing this with the utmost respect for the Astartes. I am doing what I would hope another good Imperium citizen would do. I would hope if someone found Sororitas gear they would return it to an abbey. I hope the intention, our house’s good name, and reputation will carry through my actions. I should not keep the armor but I feel, as a rogue trader, there should be a little mark of adventures had. We shall see how things fall out.


	7. Astartes, Inquisitors & Necrons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gloriana System might be holding a very dangerous secret! The Inquisition Order Xenos and Death Watch are interested and watching.

Gloriana system

Upon returning to Drucilla I spent a little time while things were gathered to ask the colonists to look into the Emeralds available on the planet. Yoshi and I had been talking and with emeralds here and the rubies and sapphires on the moon at Gloriana, we might dabble in jewelry. Pari tossed in the thought of adding digi-weapons to some pieces for myself at least. It could be a market we could tap into and worth the thoughts and inquiry. If nothing else I can sell gems to the craftsmen of Scintilla and use some of the gems in reliquary.  
Once the Actaeon and salvage ship were ready we left for Gloriana. Fast transit, as seems to be Yoshi’s skill, and we transited to the middle planet with the wreckage field around it. The Actaeon was to patrol and let us do more detailed scans of the planets. First I wanted to address the space station that we did not look at initially. I ordered the salvage crew to not enter the space station as it was unexplored and I took the gun cutter into a small landing bay. It was erie stepping out into a bay that had no gravity or power. Small fighter drones was in racks and some floated silently in the bay. There were also a number of the tentacled spheres floating about the bay. Janus wanted one of the spheres for study so we maneuvered a stasis cask to one and got it closed inside it without ‘waking’ it up, if it even had power. Next, we turned to the drone fighters. We assumed drones because they were far too small for the creatures we noted floating in the bay. The creatures were like ones we had seen on the moon around the innermost planet; large, squat, and bug-like. What was left was a shell, or possibly armor, it was hard to tell the difference without some more in-depth study. The drones were small, looked like no spot for a pilot, they did have two bulges on the sides that Janus said held more of the ‘murder balls’ as the crew was calling them. Janus thought we could get one and push it, as there was no gravity working, out the bay opening and then retrieve it with the Artemis. Since it was unclear if they were still powered we decided the two heavy gun servitors Janus brought could do the pushing. This seemed to be going well till one of the servitors bumped a murderball. The bumped ball came to life, and then other balls around the bay came to life. Before any of us could react one of the heavy servitors was destroyed and the fight was on! Sister Katolla took a shot and was rewarded with a vicious attack from the piercing tentacles and was down. I was narrowly missed by one and the balls took a few of the lighter servitors out before we got the dozen or so of the balls destroyed. We did manage to get the drone fighter but decided that was it for exploring the station. We would need haywire rounds and grenades to deal with them and whatever else was in the station.  
Nursing our wounds we moved to do detailed scans of the planets, debris field, and the asteroid field. This system has a lot to offer in the way of minerals and radioactives. A mining and salvage operation could be a good steady source of income for decades. The salvage crews were able to free the Astartes ship from the space station and we cleared it of spheres with servitors. Before we took it back to the system we painted the prow Ambrose green to hide the second legion markings. The sisters and I went through the ship and gathered all of the obvious Astartes gear and moved it to the barracks/training unit. The power armor suits we found we put into the racks and weapons were placed in the armory. I did let the crew take the Astartes shell casings, many who find them carry them as holy talisman and I did not see the harm as they were not going to be anything more than slag to make more bullets with if I returned them. I also kept one, a bolter shell of a Son of the Emperor carried by a Daughter of the Emperor felt right. I also kept one suit of power armor, the Lt in command of this Astartes group. The Astartes would never use it again and it was a legion that no longer existed. I would never sell it and no one was able to use it so it seemed fitting to keep it with the reliquary of House Ambrose. This was a holy find and we were going to treat it with all it’s due respect and honor.  
I stood one evening on one of the observation decks looking over the wreckage field. This battle was older than House Ambrose, not by a lot but it made me think back to house history lessons with grandfather. He had never been Rogue Trader of the house but he knew its history and made sure we did too. He told us the stories of the founder and how he fought alongside the UltraMarines which is how Roboute Guilliman, the Primark of the UltraMarines, rewarded him with the trade warrant we carry. Grandfather showed us the skull of the founder now encased in Blackstone, Ceramite, and Aurimite that was housed in the trophy room on the Cassian’s Bolt. All of the events and stories that led to me, here, overlooking a crusade era battlefield. I felt like it was a loop of sorts. In this moment of discovery, I felt more connected to my own origins than I ever had. I thought of my daughter on Piety of Seth and how far she was from me and our history. It was in these thoughts I was lost when Pari silently appeared beside me and touched my arm. She was here to tell me the ships were ready to leave the system and apologized for disturbing me. I asked her to walk with me to the bridge so we could talk. Her family had been intertwined with mine for millennia and she was like a sister to me. I wanted her to rebuild her own house as well as helping me rebuild mine. The Shadi were known as skilled advisors and assassins, losing her father and brother was a blow. We talked about family and how I decided I wanted to collect my daughter when we went back to Scintilla to return the Astartes gear. She is hard to read sometimes but I think she understood my meaning, I wanted her to have more than just service to Ambrose.

Caffa System

Returning home we stopped long enough to remove the barracks/training component from the Astartes ship, now renamed the Orpheus. I wanted to get the gear returned quickly and not hold onto it. We also needed to acquire miners to start the operations at Gloriana so there was a need to go back into the Calixis Sector. The transit time was a good time for me to arrange my personal quarters to have my daughter with me. I also spoke with Searne about another heir. She touched on the subject of a consort but I still am not inclined to have one or even begin to answer her questions about what kind of man I would want. I would like to carry this one myself though which was a bit of a surprise to her. She pointed out it would be best to spend the pregnancy somewhere and not travel the warp till after I had the child. I think that will work just fine. I can settle into my estate on Drucilla and oversee some projects.  
There is the usual collecting of lists of needed supplies and projects on the horizon before we head off. Istander Sera spoke to me about communications and transportation from the farm outposts and needing to improve both, Emir Matthias wanted more troops or bodies to be trained and gear, both reasonable requests. The colony is growing in leaps and bounds with so much Mechanicum help so these are natural growing pains. I want to check on the progress on the Bolt also, I know Belacain tried very hard to disassemble it but there should be a tentative timeline for when he will be returned to me. There are a few things I would like to do and obligated to do that I have put off till I have the Bolt to do them. Another evening of meetings to settle final needs and upcoming needs lists and we will depart for Footfall.

Footfall, Port Wander and Centilla

It was an uneventful trip to Footfall and on to Port Wander. Once in the Calixis Sector I let Yoshi decide which place to hit first Piety of Seth, The Lathes, or Centilla, he decided The Lathes were first. I like to give him a chance to make his own maps as often as possible even in the sector. The house lead stated he was a bit of an overconfident youth but I have found him to be a more than competent navigator and asset in dealing with social settings. His skills are so varied that he again proved his worth in talking to jewelers on Piety of Seth and Centilla. He has a good eye and has gotten to know the Ambrose style well. Occasionally he will slide in things more to his taste, probably to see if he can find some overlap of styles, and I appreciate the efforts. Usually, they are pieces or ideas that I do like. So he has proven an asset to the house in more than just navigation.  
Arriving at the Excipio Station for the Lathes I had to wait for my assigned Factor to finish with another client. A different factor took care of some smaller purchases but Haywire ammunition had to wait for my Factor. While waiting I talked with Janus and the Sisters and we decided to go ahead with a plan of augmentations Janus and I had discussed. It would require a fair amount of surgery and recovery time but now was a good time to start. This round would be setting the stage for more later but was the foundation. Blackbone bracing, bionic heart, cranial armor, and a few others were to ready our bodies for muscle and subdermal armor among others later. I will not lie, this was painful. When I woke I felt like the first weeks of training at the abbey had been a joke. My hair hurt and I was not sure that was possible! Recovery felt like ages but it was a week or so before we all felt up to even doing some basic combat training again. When we did though there was a serious learning curve for how hard our strikes would be and how little the training seemed to tax our bodies. The five of us talked about it and we all agreed that this might be a path worth exploring if for nothing more than ourselves. Sister Celeal, the older of us and formerly worked with the Inquisition, thought the Sororitas or even the Inquisition could use some heavier troops, and the augment path might be something for that role. We all agreed to keep some notes on issues and benefits we noticed in order to propose this path to the Sororitas at a later date.  
Once Factor Lankovar was available I took care of the touchier purchases. Haywire was a nasty weapon for enemies and us alike. I had to explain what I wanted them for and Factor Lankovar agreed it would help deal with the ‘murder balls’. I pulled in my last favor for the missing Lorica and asked for some Magos specializing in Xeno cogitators and scrap code infected machine spirits. They were sometimes hard to get but there had been too many times already that I could have used them. Factor Lankovar informed me that the Lorica was on its way to Caffa so it should be in my possession soon. I put in a request for a transport as my next piece of restitution, which squared up replacing the three transports lost in The Incident. I got a status update on the Bolt as well. It was taking time to locate some parts, pull apart some things for the upgrades we had agreed to and fabricate the pieces that were just missing. They had removed the prow Belacain had put on and fit the old one back in place. The Mars Red paint had been mostly removed and the Bolt was starting to look familiar again. I checked in with the 4 Dialogus who were hard at work in the trophy room/library. It seems Belacain had pulled things from the shelves, put them in cargo containers not by location but by language and in alphabetical order. The alphabetical order was interesting since some books were not in high or low gothic, they were in the ancient Terran language of Persian, a relatively unknown language now. The catalogue of what was there and where it was to be located was just missing so I may never know what disappeared in this mess. I may need to speak to Forge Master Wahh about this but it can wait till we have a better idea of the numbers of missing tomes. We finished some other purchases and headed off to Piety of Seth.  
We arrived at the Piety of Seth and I gave leave to the crew. I needed time to collect Imone and my daughter. There was some smoothing over to do with administrators as they thought I was displeased but I was honest and told them I wanted my daughter with me and I was missing out on so much. They were happy and understood, they were also understanding of not wanting a big deal made about my being here again so soon.  
Yoshi and I struck out with jewelers on Piety but we did have some food for thought after showing one jeweler the green glowing crystal from Gloriana. They did not want to touch it let alone work with it. I decided we would not bother showing jewelers on Centilla that stone. The other stones stirred some interest but no takers for my projects.  
There was a bit more of a stir than I expected when my daughter joined me on the ship. The news spread fast and Yoshi seemed a bit sullen at one of our tea chats. Pari had invited us both this particular afternoon and we were enjoying a quiet corner of the arboretum. I inquired what seemed to be bothering him and he just sighed and simply said that he liked children. I was a bit unsure what that meant but Pari understood and asked if Nuria, my daughter, should have been invited to tea. He nodded and I felt a bit foolish. I had not told anyone in my command retenue about her except Pari and Searne. I explained that I wanted her to remain safe and not a target till I was sure things with Belacain were settled. It was not out of mistrust of anyone but just plausible deniability, they did not know so could reveal nothing. I decided to let him know I would be spending a year on Drusilla to make sure I had another heir which turned the conversation to children and families. I realize that, in a manner, my command retenue was my family now. They are invested in my success and the success of the house not strictly out of personal gain. I have collected some people who are not outcasts but driven in a way that average citizens of the Imperium are not, they are explorers. They are here on a rogue traders ship to see what no one has before or in a very long time. They are here to make a niche for their odd ways of thinking and being dreamers. Yoshi has a family but he seems a bit annoyed with them at times. Zalavant was put on a Black Ship by his family and may not even recall them. Pari lost hers with my own as did some of the others of the Artemis. I need to trust these people not just with my life, but the life and future of House Ambrose.  
Moving on from Piety of Seth we headed to Cintilla. We were there for a few purchases, to pick up crew, miners and return the Astartes gear. Once we got in range I contacted the Death Watch for an audience. I was granted one in a few days so Yoshi and I spent the time looking at jewelers and their work. We did find a Master with a few promising journeymen under him that met our requirements and were able to hire them. We were also informed the gems were of good quality and should cut beautifully.  
My next appointment was the Astartes. Pari and I took care of this on our own. I did not wear the Sororitas armor because I wanted this to be a House Ambrose act and not on the behalf of the Sororitas. Death Watch was associated with the Inquisition so I had no doubt they knew I had Sororitas ties. We were instructed to dock with one of their reserved docks to drop off the component. Pari and I took the salvage ship to the dock and were met by an Inquisition page who escorted us to our meeting. I was not sure who I would be meeting and was a bit surprised to have not one but three Astartes greet me and Pari. A Watch Captain, a Chaplin, and a Tech-Marine greeted us and asked what we had for them. I gave them a quick rundown on what we found and where we had found it. They asked for more details about the system and what seemed to have happened. I handed them a data slate with the specs on the system, scans of the planets, and a sample of the sand and green crystal. That is when things got interesting, by interesting I mean Necron interesting. I had just enough knowledge from Sororitas training to know Necrons were bad and what we found might be a tomb world. But why had nothing awoken from it was the question Death Watch had. The Tech-Marine, Joshua was his name, took the sand and stone to do some quick analysis while the Chaplin and Watch Captain came aboard the salvage ship to see what we had found. They asked if there were gene seeds in the vault and I lied and said I was unsure as the vault was gene locked. They inquired about the damage to the power armor and I told them about the ‘murder balls’ and our own fights with them. I told them I had the ship and was keeping it and would like to keep a lander we found on it as well. I pulled up the images and specs on the ship and lander and they seemed content that I would put them both to good use. The component was unloaded and I was asked to wait in the system for a few days as they would like to look over what I had found. I agreed and Pari and I returned to the Artemis.  
A day later I was told an Inquisitor wanted to come aboard and see me. Inquisitor Jena Orichiel of Order Xenos was escorted to my study. She was curt and to the point, she needed transport to the Gloriana system to investigate the innermost planet for possible Necron activity. She would need quarters for 30, her drop lander, and possibly supplies while they were at Gloriana. I agreed and let her know I had been asked to stay for a few days and would not be leaving immediately. That fit her timetable as well and she would let me know when they were ready to bring their shuttle aboard. When she had come aboard I had been reading Janus’s reports on the grey sand, and I felt a bit of a fool. He had reported that the sand was actually nanites, dead or inert nanites. No matter how he acted on them they did nothing other than convert warp energy to heat. He could shape them like metal and they still emitted heat. The green glowing stone also pointed at Necrons. The curiosity is what happened on that world to destroy the Necrons to this point. Was it the vegetation mats? Was it the radiation burst from destroying the space station's reactor? All of these questions told me why the Inquisitor was going and worried me. Necrons destroy all living things on worlds they come to, and Caffa was not that far away. I let Pari know that we will have guests going back with us and that we need to talk.  
A few days later I met again with Death Watch. It looks Necron like and they want as much information as we can give them. I let them know we have a ‘murderball’ in pieces abord the Artemis and Janus has more extensive information. Tech-Marine Joshua is going to come aboard and spend some time with Janus and look over what we have. I warn Janus and ask the Biologus to join us with any information on the vegetation mats we found. Joshua listened and he and Janus had some extensive conversation in binary cant. When Joshua left he took the murderball and green crystal for further study. I had to promise Janus I would grab him another murderball to study.  
Now we head home. We have on board 30 troops and the Inquisitor, her drop shuttle, and a new fear. The Inquisitor said they would keep to themselves and asked that the bay with their shuttle be made off limits. Not a problem and went further to make the area around the guest quarters off-limits as well. This is probably for the best as some of her troops look, well, not human. She and I have a few conversations on the way home about the Gloriana system, what I intend for it and such. The trip home is a bit rough, some time waiting on warp storms and the like but we made good time even with delays.

Caffa System

Home again, and greeted by a couple of new Mechanicum ships in orbit. Evidently, we had just missed each other in my going back and forth to Gloriana and into the Calixis Sector. They were here to deliver and fit the Lorica of Konor, the Roar of Courage and the Skull of the Founder, items that had been taken by Belacain when they took the Cassian’s Bolt. The Lorica had been given by Roboute Guilliman with the warrant or trade. Just about every Rogue Trader of House Ambrose had worn it and it is how I recall my father. It was now to be mine. The Roar of Courage is an Astartes bolter carried by Captain Cassian and given to the house, by his orders, to House Ambrose. A hefty weapon and also something that made me think of my father. The Skull of the Founder is the actual skull of the first Rogue Trader of House Ambrose. It is the Blackstone covered skull I remember my grandfather told stories of and showed us. It was good to have these last items returned to the house.  
I stop long enough to drop some things to Drucilla and let the Magos fitting the Lorica do the initial measurements and such. Then we move on to drop the Inquisitor off on the inner planet at Gloriana. We also do the initial drops of mining equipment and habitation blocks to the area we are going to mine. I am leaving the Actaeon and a salvage ship in the system so the Inquisitor has someone to contact when they need to leave. I meet with the two captains and the lead miner and let them know the Inquisitor might contact them for supplies and possibly to get taken back to the Calixis Sector. They are to give her what she wants if they have it and if we need to bring supplies out from Drucilla we will. Also if she says to pack it up and get the hell out of the system then do it, don’t worry about the equipment just get out with their lives.  
Emperor protect us all if that is a tomb world


	8. Prologe:  Dramatis Persona

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a breakdown of people and places in the journals of Amber Elaine Ambrose. Each person and place has a brief description and will be updated as new characters appear and places are explored

**Dead Before Journals Begin**

**Lord Captain Kahlid Omar Ambrose -** Rogue Trader of the House Ambrose prior to Amber and Amber's father. Died on the bridge of the Cassian's Bolt when Forge World Belacain took the ship

 **Huran Milan Ambrose -** Eldest son of the House Ambrose and one of the heirs apparent to the Rogue Tradership. Died fighting by his father's side on the bridge of the Cassian's Bolt

 **Nuria Ashia Ambrose -** Oldest daughter of House Ambrose and one of the heirs apparent to the Rogue Tradership. Probably died on the Cassian's Bolt.

 **Willam Majid Ambrose -** Youngest son of House Ambrose. Unclear his location when he died, probably in the colony on Drusilla

 **Ahdia Fehmeeda bint Koffa Ambrose -** Mother of Amber and siblings. Unclear her location when she died, probably in the colony on Drusilla

**Crew and Personalities of The Artemis**

**Lord Captain Amber Elaine ‘Lethia’ Ambrose** , Rogue Trader, Constantia of the Bloody Rose

 **Heir, Nuria Ahdia Ambrose** \- Born on 720.882M41 residing on Drusilla

**Heir, Huran Atif Ambrose - Born on 338.886M41 and currently living on Drucilla.**

**Choir-Master Telepathica, Zalavant Creshna -** Very young for a Choir-master, the Choir of Scintilla was able to release him to House Ambrose service on short notice. His striking wings were seen as a good omen by much of the crew and the young Roge Trader

 **Navigator Primaris** , Yoshi Haru of House Visscher. Precociously talented, Yoshi felt his talents were being wasted on 'safe' routes and pushed to join House Ambrose

 **Man at Arms** , Decius Fenger - An older ex-stormtrooper, Decius transferred to the Ambrose dynasty after 20 years of service. In exchange, he has received excellent equipment and Juvenant treatments that keep him in his prime. He has a preference for exotic and unusual weapons, particularly those that are unknown (or illegal) in the Calaxis sector. 

**Senchenal** , Pari Shadi - A slim and soft-looking woman whose family has served the Dynasty for longer than there has been a Calaxis sector. Her father was the previous Senchenal, but she has been managing the finances and assassins of the Dynasty in the Calaxis sector. She tends to speak only when needed.

 **Enginseer Prime** , Octavian-c36 - Originally from Lathe-Hadd, Octavian-c36 has served for over 50 years as an Enginseer on the Artemis. Oddly for a senior tech priest, Octavian-c36 has little interest in exploration or hunting knowledge, preferring to serve and care of the ship and her associated equipment like they were beloved children.

 **Sister Lynahla** , bodyguard and friend - Lynahla was in the same novate classes as the Lord Trader and excelled in the martial skills of a Sister of Battle, even if her prayer was considered sparse (for a Sister).

 **Sister Katolla** , once a fellow novate, not a friend but a friendly acquaintance 

**Sister Celael** , a more experienced sister who has been assigned to help/train you and the other sisters as well as watch over the Ministorium's interests.

 **Sister Jaina** , a sister who also acts as the armorer for Adeptus Sororitas and assigned to maintain the holy equipment of you and the sisters.

 **Magos Janus Caleb-8, Explorator** \- Janus is a somewhat typical looking Explorator who signed on with the ship recently. He has offered his expertise in exchange for the ability to get first look at new artifacts in the fabled Koronus Expanse. He comes with a small retinue of servitors and reclaimator assistants. Octavian-c36 and he have agreed to divide up duties, which pleases Octavian-c36 (as it allows him to focus on taking care of his precious ship and equipment).

 **Gurney Halet -** Armsman, recently killed an assassin and was granted their Long Las, Hot Shot packs, and training

 **Marcus Fulton -** Psycannis Bodyguard for Zalavant, 

**Sister Serapha -** Dialogus on the Artemis, keeper of the Artemis library and advising Amber

 **Familuous Saerne** \- advisor to Rogue Trader Amber traveling with her. Saerne is older and more experienced of the two Familuous and had no desire to mind children.

 **Familuous Immone** \- Charged with Amber's heirs; acquiring them and educating them. Immone is still making a name for herself as a Familuous and hopes success with House Ambrose will help her in that goal.

**Caffa Colony**

**Emir Matthias Comeauy** \- Senior Militia Officer, Ex-Guardsman Helped hold the colony together when the former rogue trader disappeared. Amber rewarded him with a significant promotion to the military leader on the colony

 **Istandar Sera Gregolin** \- Colony administrator of Agricultural Colony Helped hold the colony together after the former rogue trader disappeared. Amber rewarded her with promotion to colony governor

 **Olympia Lipira** \- Leader of remaining Clergy on Colony

 **Isidora Ambel -** Astropath Transcendent leader of the colony choir. Is proficient with a flamer and VERY pious. No mutations. Her presence is quiet but commanding. Simple ‘looks’ from her milky sightless eyes speak volumes. Her pious devotion might border on shaming a sister

 **Magos** **Randice-Lisa Altschul** \- Head of the new Research Colony and a Levelist banished by ‘Promotion’ to Caffa due to her ‘extremist’ views. Her extreme skill and relatively friendly demeanor (calculated for effect) prevented any backlash for her views but were causing friction. Recent events have elevated that tension, even as the moving of the Stasis technology to the Forge has eased them. Mangos Randice-Lisa was promoted to head of Lathe-Hadd’s interests in the Koronus Expanse and the Caffa Research Colony.

 **Barstow Stephens** \- Architect hired from Scintilla to build new Ministorium Complex. Hated by House Brulek for the death of their heir due to a falling statue (arranged by Mathius). Now the architect in residence on Drucilla

 **Lisa Stephens** \- Barstow’s second wife and business manager. She handles the more ‘people-oriented’ tasks and loves Barstow for this ‘vision’. 

**Gloriana Research Colony**

**Istandar Danya Shadi -** cousin to Senechal Pari Shadi, governing the research colony on the moon or Primus

**Brother Sargent Calidus -** Kill Team leader from the Marines August chapter stationed at Watch Station in the Gloriana System. Expert on Necrons.

**Calaxis Sector**

**Forge Master Villem Warik Wahh** \- Forgemaster of Lathe-Hadd. A gregarious and approachable personage, but not known for getting things done.

 **High Fabricator of the Lathes, Arch-Magos Castellar, Forge Master of Lathe-Het** \- The head of all forge worlds in the Calaxis sector. A Thulian oriented leader, he has also overseen moving manufacturing off of Lathe-Het to increase the administrative duties.

 **Inquisitor Keterlyn Maurer - Ordos Hereticus** \- Inquisitor who has asked Lord Ambrose to provide information on the Cold Trade and occasionally carry her agents

 **High Factor Desmerius Lankovar** \- representative of Lath-Hadd

 **Abbess Galatea Dumas** \- Abbess of Order of the Bloody Rose on Scintilla

 **Scion Mathius Brulek** \- Heir to House Brulek on Scintilla, hates House Ambrose for their insult and his father’s punishment

 **Lord Rudolph Brulek -** Lord of House Brulek on Scintilla, disappointed in his son being unable to clean up his own mess. 

**Watch Captain Gabriel** \- A beautiful and skilled Blood Angel wearing ornate black armor with a large teardrop ruby on one shoulder. he is also the Watch Captain of the Scintilla Deathwatch facility.

 **Chaplain Donak** (Salamander) - A huge black figure in skull mask, he takes it off only if required to. 

**Techmarine Joshua** (Black Templar) - A Deathwatch Techmarine who is studying the artifacts and technologies coming back from Gloriana to determine their link to the Necron and any possible weapons against the Necrons can be derived from them.

 **Inquisitor Jena Orechiel** \- Jena Orechiel has been in the Inquisition’s service for many decades, first as an acolyte to the famed Ordo Xenos Inquisitor Dargasto and, on his death, as an Inquisitor in her own right. Upon inheritance of Dargasto’s position, Orechiel gained not only her master’s Inquisitorial Seal and followers but also a mission of the utmost importance – to prevent a second dawn for the ancient star gods known as the C'tan.


	9. All That Glitters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A second heir is born and so are several business ventures. Amber has to get the Inquisition and the Mechanicum to work together on a project to benefit the whole of the Imperium

Gloriana System

Once I finished with the Magos fitting the Lorica and dropped supplies on Drucilla we headed to Gloriana. We had moved the Inquisitor to the Actaeon along with a few months' supplies for them if they needed, and once in the system the Actaeon took the Inquisitor to Primus. The Artemis and salvage ship went to Secundus and set to work dropping the mining habs, living quarters, and support structures. We also had a small mining hab to drop on the Corundum rich moon to start harvesting sapphires and rubies. It took a few weeks to get everything settled and placed on the two sites but they were up and running by the time we left the system. I left the Actaeon to be a point of contact for the Inquisitor so we shall see what comes of her time there.

Caffa System: Drucilla

Returning to Drucilla I gave extended leave as I would be taking 12-16 months time to have my second child and the second round of surgeries for the augmentation path. During this time work could begin on transportation improvements and I was informed jewelers and their equipment was coming out on the next Mechanicum transport. There were also three Magos to interview for the position of making digi-weapons to incorporate into some jewelry pieces. Even if the only pieces we made were used by the command crew they were worth making. Yoshi and I and others dove into the design piece of this project. I went through some family pieces for inspiration, I believe Yoshi also reached to family esthetics and others added other ideas. All of this gave us a good base to hand to the jewelers and Magos to create something beautiful, practical and that spoke to it being an Ambrose creation. This project was not without its own issues.   
The first was to interview the three Magos candidates for making the digi-weapons. The three sent to me were very different from each other and could all work. It was going to come down to looking at the work and who was willing to do what we wanted. Charles was the first Magos; he was young, his work a little sloppy (tiny flaws, nothing non-functional) and these were new skills to him. He was eager and I can work with that. Leahland was the next candidate. He was not going to be what we needed I could tell right off. He only made what the Mechanicum had Holy STCs for and no variations. Showing him the design ideas we had made him twitchy and I could tell he really did not like the thought of working outside the STCs. The third was a peculiar fellow, Pari and I realized he never gave us his name when we met him. He dove right into a piece he had been trying to replicate for some time and talked on at length about it, obsessively so. Yoshi looked at him and found he was tainted with a minor amount of warp, which prompted him to ask Zalavant to also take a look. Pari and I kept talking to the Magos while Yoshi and Zalavant determined that the ring the Magos was obsessing over was ‘inhabited’ and had a hold on the Magos. Not good at all. Through the mind link I requested they get Janus and a stasis box and bring it here immediately. I also requested Lisa from the research colony to come, she would be the ranking Mechanicum here and would have thoughts on what to do with a warp tainted Magos. I wanted to handle this quickly and with little violence as I was not in a state to be fighting being several months pregnant. I was a bit dismayed at Lisa bringing Skitarii with her but it ended up being needed. When it felt like all was ready I picked up the ring to give it a closer look and moved a bit so I could drop it in the stasis box. The mangos seemed to understand what was happening and knocked it from my hand and fired a mini melta from a mechadendrite. I swept it up and held it back toward Yoshi and Zalavant while I pointed a bolter at the Magos. Everything seemed to happen at once after that; Yoshi and Zalavant confirmed there was a presence in or on the ring and it had a hold of the Magos, a Skitarii shot the Magos and the ring was dropped into stasis. Janus looked it over and the replicas and said it looked to be Thousand Suns make, which made it heretical and warp tainted. He said the replicas were passively tainted but had no presence of their own, and all he would be happy to slag and fire off into the sun. The Magos was turned over to Lisa for a mind wipe after I did an exorcism. I do not think Immone and Saerne were pleased about the exorcism while I was pregnant but I am the only sister with us that has the skill. That might need to change but nothing to be done at the moment. I decided to hire both Leahland and Charles to work on the digi-weapons. We would need some mundane jewelry weapons to sell, Leahlands forte, and the specialty pieces would be Charles. They seemed to be alright with this as long as they did not have to work on the same projects together. So that was settled.   
The next issue was a lot more mundane but no less annoying. Matthias Brulec rears his head again, this time in the form of emerald sabotage. The Jewelers had set aside a number of emeralds that did not fit the profile of the mines we had found on Drucilla. They were poor color, quality and very porous. One of the jewelers recognized them as belonging to some poor quality mines in the Calixis Sector, meaning they were brought in. There were also a few of a different color graduation than Drucilla emeralds, those were the larger problem. The stones were perfect in many ways, color, clarity, good solid stones, but they came from a different planet in the Calixis Sector. The planet they were from had been lost to the warp for decades and when it re-emerged everything on it had a warp taint. The Inquisition had made the planet off limits to all so there should be no warp tainted emeralds in the market. Two different kinds of ‘trash’ stones here in the expanse that match stones from planets in the Calixis Sector had to have come in with someone. I set Pari and her people to task on finding out who. We had not locked down the mines with the highest level security as I did not see the need. Ambrose had never enslaved people or treated them like slaves. The house had worked hard to make sure anyone working for the house was comfortable, well cared for and they moved between ships, holdings and in and out of the sector freely. People retired from the Cassian’s Bolt to the Artemis in sector and sent their children out the Bolt. Ambrose people were family and family did not need high level, invasive security on gems mines, so I thought. Pari decided to do scans of people going into work as the stones had to be coming in with someone, and they caught a young woman by the name of Ashley. She had come with the last group of miners from Scintilla and was a skilled miner. I asked Pari to bring her to me aboard the Artemis. She was led into my study by two Janissary Guards and given a seat across from me in my study. I had pulled the three normal servo skulls Inquisitor Keterlyn had given me from the stasis chest I kept them in to record this as it was someone dealing in warp tainted emeralds. Not totally up her alley but she could use it. Zalavant was beside me as I did not think she would give up her employer without some persuasion. I poured out the emeralds on a table between us, and sat back. She looked at the pile of gems and then up at me. I held up one finger and spoke ‘You have one chance to tell me who hired you to do this. If you lie I send him into your mind for the information’ I gestured to Zalavant. She chose the painful road. She started with some story about wanting to swap stones for herself at which point I stopped her. ‘I want a name’ was all I said. She stammered about not being able to reveal such a thing or she would be killed. I just looked at Zalavant and said ‘Get the name’. I did not listen to another word from her mouth. After a few moments Zalavant turned to me and gave me the name, Matthias Brulec. I knew the one incident was not going to be the only time I had to deal with him. I had to admit it was a bit clever what he had tried, ham handedly, to do. I would sell warp tainted jewelry to nobles of Scintilla and he would turn me in. The problem is the boy does zero research before diving into these schemes. Sororitas Sisters know how to see warp taint, a Rogue Trader would not hire a hack jeweler, and he did not pay this young woman nearly enough to keep her mouth shut. Fortunately, I do know how to address this, Inquisitor Keterlyn. House Brulec is dealing in warp tainted gems from a planet that has been forbidden to all by the Inquisition, they will now have to explain. Not what Keterlyn was looking for but it might lead to bigger fish possibly in the Cold Trade. If nothing else it brings Inquisitional attention to the fact someone is ignoring the ban on that planet. Lovely Ashley will be joining the crew of the Scorn of Fools, a penance ship Ambrose operates. It is for those people who are too well placed to just kill but need some time to reflect on their transgressions. They work as crew moving cargo around the Calixis Sector, Ashley will spend the rest of her extended life there. Evidently, Matthias paid her a handsome sum of money and juevinante treatment. I have set Pari, with Zalavant’s help if needed, on seeing where the money is stashed so it can be confiscated and turned over to a charitable cause in Ashley’s name, very penitent of her. Perhaps Matthias will join her on the Scorn of Fool’s, it might do him some good. After the gems were sorted through and looked over by Yoshi, Zalavant and their various compatriot psykers the jewelers and Magos could settle to their craft.  
I settled into being uncomfortable and very pregnant. There were a few concerns with the augmentations and the nature of pregnancy but everything went well enough. I oversaw what I could around the work on the colony and the jewelry trade. Yoshi also started working with architect Stephens on a home for Visscher, or at least for himself at the moment. I am having a small home built outside the colony, sort of a retreat from all the chaos and building for my children to be while I am away. I find in the time of waiting I am thinking about how close Gloriana is and how frightening it could be if that is a tomb world. I look to the future and a small corner of my mind mulls over what could happen. Necrons are like locusts of Terra, they swarm over and devour leaving nothing but ruins. It is in these circles that news of the Actaeon’s return reaches me, they come bearing the Inquisitor. Inquisitor Orechiel is, as every time I have spoken with her, direct and to the point. That was a tomb world, everything seems to be dead or in a state that is not compatible with the Necrons ‘waking up’. She wants to return to the Calixis Sector and gather resources to study the world. That would be fine with me except for the agreement I have with Lathe Hadd giving first right of refusal to archeotech and xenotech I am not going to use myself. I show Inquisitor Orechiel the agreement and let her know I might have a compromise but it will need her and the Inquisitions agreement. I proposed a three way split of costs and resources between Lathe Hadd, the Inquisition and House Ambrose. She does not and cannot speak for the Inquisition but she thought that might be doable. She agreed to go with me to speak with the Forge Master Wahh at Hadd when I come into sector later in the year. This puts off my planned exploration of Awl’s holdings but I would rather settle this now with permissions and not later with asking forgiveness. It will give me a chance to check in with Keterlyn on the emerald matter. I sent Pari aboard the Artemis to Footfall to deliver the information off the skulls. Yoshi went with her to speed the trip but that means I have time with my children. A son has joined my daughter as heirs to House Ambrose, Huran Atif Ambrose. He is a fine healthy boy named for my brother and grandfather. There seems to be no ill effect of having done the exorcism while carrying him. I also have time to have the second batch of augment surgeries done. I might jump them a bit to include an artifact found in the crashed transport on Caffa II, nanoite vision enhancement, an archeotech version of what we were going to do. Unfortunately only one vile of the case of twenty four was recovered intact so it will be mine. Janus and Lisa are looking forward to seeing how the nanites and my cerebral booster work together, I am mildly terrified but all in the name of science. The four sisters and myself got the second stage of augments done, muscle grafts, vox beads, pain ward and the eye augment to myself. These were not nearly as painful as the first round but the eyes will take some serious getting used to. They proved a lot of information and it takes a bit to make sense of what I am ‘seeing’. Janus has been helping with that and observing the interface.  
The next trip is back into the Calixis Sector. It does get frustrating having to do all of the politicking. I am going to take a shot at seeing some documents regarding the House that are stored with the Inquisition. That might be a bit of a fight but I am the Rogue Trader and there might be a little leverage to be had in ‘handling’ the Inquisition. I want to know why we were gifted the huge stasis holds with no consideration given to the Mechanicum. I want to know what other little bits of information I can glean from the family vaults on Scentilla. There is also the Bolt. I want it back and the reminders might be hurrying things along a bit, I hope. I also want to see how the Dialogus are getting along with the library. It would be nice to have the Bolt back to go exploring Awl’s holdings. We shall see how this all plays out.


	10. Inquiries with the Inquisition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Politics, negotiations, and a touch from the past

**Caffa System**

After Inquisitor Orechiel and Pari departed I was left with some time with my two children and thoughts of how to wrangle the Mechanicum and the Inquisition into a partnership. I sent one of the salvage ships to the Gloriana system for the smaller of the odd xeno ships, that might make the research colony a bit more palatable for Wahh. In spending time with the colony and its people I become a bit frustrated with my expectations of getting two major factions in the Imperium to work together. Sera and Matthias stepped up and led the colony with no orders, just loyalty to the house. It would be nice if I could expect the same from the Mechanicum and the Inquisition but they are so suspicious of each other. We are all part of the Imperium and weakness in one is weakness for the whole but that seems to be an alien concept to them. Inquisitor Orechiel seems to see the need for multiple resources being brought to bear on such an interesting and useful world but will that be enough to jump the hurdle of mistrust. I will go with hope and some gifts to ease the way.

The Artemis returned with no issues and Pari had suggested turning over Ashley herself to the Inquisitor rather than punishing her ourselves. She may still end up on the Scorn of Fools but Keterlyn may have other uses for her. If house Brulec was messing about with warp tainted gems then they probably have no qualms dealing in other materials of questionable value and use. The Artemis’s return also means I am to leave again. Little Nuria is vexed with me, she likes Immone well enough but she liked being with me. I have to promise her I will be back with presents for her and Huran and when she is bigger she and her brother will get to travel with me. I can recall some of the same interactions between me and my father. When we were young we stayed at the colony with our mother but my older siblings got to go with him. I recall saying the same things my little one said, ‘it’s not fair’ ‘I want to go too’ and I now know how father felt leaving us behind. I do feel a bit more wretched knowing who they are with is not a parent but a guardian. Immune loves them both but it is never quite the same as a parent. Leave them I must and off to dance the politic dance of exploiting this tomb world.

**Footfall and into the Calixis Sector**

The Artemis was accompanied by Orpheus and Caladrius on the journey into the Calixis Sector. The Orpheus needed to be registered as belonging to House Ambrose and needed a load out of torpedoes, so that would be a stop at Port Wander and then send it back home. The Caladrius was one of the two salvage transports I had gotten as replacements for the lost house assets. It was bringing the smaller of the xeno ships into the Lathes as per our agreement and to possibly sweeten the pot for a cooperative research colony at Gloriana.    
The passage was not as fast due to the Caladrius having less powerful warp drives, something I will need to remedy if it is to explore with me. The trip was smooth and we transitioned to the 7-day cruise to the opposite side of Footfall to the Maw jump point. A day into the cruise we received a distress call from a pilgrim ship, The Visions of Sanguineus. They were under attack and needed assistance. They were only a few hours from us so we moved to assist them. Pirates often hung on the outside edges of jump points to hit ships as they came out of the Warp so this was not surprising to find them here. When we caught up with them there were two small battleships, an Idolator Class called Tears of Fools and an Infidel Class called Spores of Sedition. They were working to harry the pilgrim ship and we opened fire as we got in range. The Artemis dealt a good blow to the Spores of Sedition which let them know we were there to aid the pilgrim ship. Volleys were exchanged and we worked to get the smaller battleships off the wallowing pilgrim ship. Yoshi informed us there was a cruiser lying in wait ahead of the pilgrim ship. I did not have a clear shot to it but the Orpheus did and it let the cruiser have a good blast. The cruiser had been drifting with no shields so it was not ready for the blow it received. Shortly after that, I was hailed. We were not fighting ordinary pirates. The face of an Astarte greeted me, a fallen Chaos Marine. Brother Ezekiel was his name and he leveled a number of threats at my ships and personage before the communication were ended. I ordered the Caladrius to hang back and the Artemis and Orpheus continued to blast the heretics! The Spores of Sedition was making to leave the battle as we had rendered it blind and with minimal weapons, the Tears of Fools had a fire in what had been their torpedo bays, and the Orpheus landed a shot that exploded the cruisers torpedo bays. The cruiser, Purity of Prophecy, came forward ignoring the pilgrim ship in favor of the Artemis. As they came in close we had guests come aboard, Brother Ezekiel, and 4 other chaos marines teleported onto the Artemis just outside the bridge. 

As the doors to the bridge were slagged and pulled apart I took a shot at the first figure I saw. I do not think Brother Ezekiel was expecting bullets from an Astarti weapon but that is what he got. Blood trickled from three holes in his armor and the fight was on. Yoshi locked up one of the marines who was demon-possessed, which was the best move he could make. I ordered two sisters to cover him after he took some hate for that move. It took some doing but we managed to kill all five of them. The Orpheus finished off the Spores of Sedition as the other two chaos ships ran from the fight. We decided not to chase the other two ships as they would probably head to a chaos port and they were now minus a leader. The bridge was a mess, with slagged doors, blood from both sides, and bodies. A few Skitarii were destroyed, Yoshi was wounded, I took a few shots but they were glancing and the Lorica served me well. When Ezekiel struck me with his demon blade the blade screamed in pain, I knew the Lorica was warded but that little bit of field testing was interesting. The demon blade also screamed when I stepped on it to keep Ezekiel from picking it back up. I will miss wearing my Sororitas armor and will have to mark the Lorica for my own.

The chaos marines were thrown in statis casks along with the demon sword. We pounded the Spores of Sedition into nothing but floating rubble and checked in with the Visions of Sangenius before they continued on their way. In passing Footfall I reported the attack and results before we jumped into the Maw to Port Wander.

At Port Wander, I stopped at the Navy outpost and registered the Orpheus with House Ambrose, purchased a loadout of very expensive torpedoes and sent it home to Caffa. There were a few raised eyebrows at the ship, its provenance and the release from Death Watch for me to retain the ship but the Orpheus when back to Caffa loaded and registered with House Ambrose. Having no further business at Port Wander we went on to the Lathes. I wanted to get the xeno ship offloaded and the Caladrius started on new drives. I figured getting an appointment to see Forge Master Wahh would take some time to arrange so I could start that ball rolling before heading to Scintilla to court the Inquisition. Factor Lankovar was accommodating as always and made the arrangements to offload the xeno ship and start work on the drives. Things got a bit chilly when I stated the reason for wanting a meeting with Forge Master Wahh. Janus gave the details required for them to consider such a deal and I let them know I would be at Scintilla for a few weeks to speak with Inquisitor Orchiel and could be reached there. I left the Caladrius at the Lathes for the drive work and moved on to Scintilla.

It was a 5-day transit into the ports of Scintilla and in that time we got an earful of interesting information from the news feeds. It would seem there was a bit of a stir about three noble houses scions raising forces to go off to serve the Imperium, one of the houses was Brulec. Upon getting docked and Yoshi spending some time with family it would seem there was a major Cold Trade and Chaos cult uncovered by the Inquisition on Scintilla. Thousands were put to the pyres and even more were questioned and vanished. I do not think I even need to ask how that ball got started rolling but it is nice to know that some of the information I had handed over to Keterlyn had been of use. The social scene was fairly quiet as there was the flutter of the sions being ‘given such an honor’ so I did not have to entertain much in the way of events and social occasions. I hope the young Brulec sion gains some wisdom in his service to the Imperium. I also hope Lord Brulec has other children.

Once docked I contacted the Tricorn Palace to arrange meetings with Death Watch, Inquisitor Orechiel, Inquisitor Keterlyn if she was around, and someone from Ordos Malleus for the warp tainted space marines gear. I was given an appointment in two days but I was not told who I would be meeting with so I figured it would be an Inquisitorial page to sort out who and what I needed. Pari had suggested that Death Watch might want an outpost in Gloriana because of the tomb world and just as a presence in the expanse and I was willing to make the offer. I needed to speak with Death Watch about munitions for the Roar of Courage as it was an Asarti Bolter and needed their sanction to purchase munitions for it. First, we would have to go through the protocol, which meant waiting.

The first meeting I had was not with an Inquisitorial Page as I had thought, I was to see Inquisitor Orechiel herself. Pari accompanied me and Orechiel led us to her very orderly, stark office space. She had found a few Inquisitors who were interested in this project and they wanted to speak with me about my motivations and contributions. I told her I had given leave to the crew so I would be here for some time, as well as waiting on word about a meeting with Forge Master Wahh. I did reiterate to her that if Wahh was not for this and the Inquisition was going to force the issue she was going to have to do that to Wahh so I did not lose face in the agreement I had with Lathe Hadd. She hoped it did not come to that as it would be bad politically but it was understood. She gave me the names of a the few she had found that were interested and would arrange appointments with them. I asked about getting to see a document in the Inquisitional vaults and she said she might be able to arrange that as well. We talked more about details and what would be needed, how to handle getting supplies to the moon and keep a limited number of my house people in the loop or at least limit the number who knew anything. She offered some crew to join the house and be the people who took care of supply transfers and the like and that seemed to be the best solution so I agreed. Orechiel had one appointment set before I left her for the next day with an Inquisitor Fransesco Pacelli who would meet with me at my apartments on Scintilla. On my way out I was given an appointment for Death Watch in 4 days. The next few weeks would be a lot of meetings but such was what this endeavor was going to take.

Inquisitor Pacelli was an imposing man in being and with the guard he brought with him. He was pleasant but seemed to be suspicious about what I was expecting out of this deal. I was honest, I wanted to exploit whatever we could from a tomb world that had been rendered dead or inert. If there was something to be gleaned from the world that could be used against the Necrons it was worth supporting in whatever way I could. He asked about security and I explained the Gloriana system was an Ambrose holding so no one else should be there and we had mining operations there so ships coming and going would not be odd especially ships of House Ambrose. I can not say if this meeting went well or not. Pecelli left with few words and I am not sure if my motivations met with approval or not. Such is dealing with the Inquisition. 

The next meeting I had was with Death Watch, Watch Commander Gabriel who I met before when I brought the Astari gear in to return. He was a bit more relaxed this time and we had a pleasant conversation about various topics until I got to the meat of why I had come. The munitions were not a problem and he was pleased to hear the Roar of Courage ended a few Chaos Marines lives and was happy to help get me more munitions to that end. Then there was the watch station on or around Gloriana Primus. He had seen the reports and wanted me to speak with Brother-Sergeant Calidus. Calidus had fought Necrons and was interested in any and all of the information we recovered up to this point and after. Calidus was short and to the point, a military man in all respects which I respected. Both Gabriel and Calidus shared my concern that this tomb world might not be completely dead. I shared with Calidus all the scans of the planet, information on the research thus far on the xeno race that settled the system after the Necrons, and my plans for a research colony between House Ambrose, the Inquisition and The Mechanicum. Calidus wanted to know if Ambrose could aid in the establishment of a Watch Station on the asteroid moon of Primus. I had already spoken with Pari about what we could support and that was well within what we could do. I told them Ambrose had a mining operation on Secondus and ships would be coming and going so their gear and people could be moved with little notice. Caffa was not far away and had a growing colony there capable of producing basic goods, possibly specialized if I could make the arrangements. Calidus then introduced me to the squad he was thinking of taking there and we swore oaths and signed charters. Dealing with Death Watch has been refreshingly simple and straightforward and I appreciate that deeply. They are men of action and little politics and that makes negotiations about practicality rather than posturing.

The next inquisitor I had to meet with at the Tricorn Palace, Inquisitor Van Vuygens of Ordo Xenos. Van Vurygens was a scholarly looking man in the midst of dissection when Orechiel brought me down to see him. He was interested in the xeno race that settled and were using the nanoite sand. He was also hard to read and asked a lot of questions about security, the mechanicum involvement, a lot of the same things I had gone over with Inquisitor Pacelli. I was again left not knowing how that went but I did what I could and if nothing else Orechiel seemed pleased and interested. 

Orechiel also set up a meeting with a Lord Inquisitor Dhar Ordo Malleus, he could take the warp and chaos tainted items and possibly speak to me about seeing the document I wanted in the Inquisitional vaults. The next afternoon I brought a shuttle with the stasis casks to the Tricorn Palace to meet with the Lord Inquisitor. He had the casks unloaded while we went to his study to speak. He inquired as to what I had brought them and I listed off what was in the casks; 5 sets of chaos marine armor with biological matter left in them, Brother Ezekiel’s demon sword, and a Thousand Sun ring I had taken from a Magos. I relayed to him the short version of the battle and he was pleased to hear of the end of such heretical marines. The Inquisition would be pleased to take possession of the gear and destroy or study it. We then came to the matter of seeing a document in the vaults. I gave him the document number and he asked why I needed to see such a document. I explained that the house held a copy but it was heavily redacted. Such redactions were not uncommon but the ‘story’ behind it would be told to the next Rogue Trader by the current one. I, however, had been deprived of such interactions with the previous Rogue Trader and was needing to find information on my own. I would not be sharing the secret except with the next Rogue Trader and Ambrose was a house of its word. He flipped open a file sitting on his desk and looked over a few things and agreed. House Ambrose is a long, storied house and one of honor. My service too was of note and he would bring my request to Lord Inquisitor Caidin of the Calixis Sector, as he was the only one who could authorize and give me admittance to those vaults. I let him know I was here for another week or so and would like to see the document before I left the Sector. I was not sure if I would get to see this document but the effort was made. To my surprise, I was told I had a meeting a few days later to see Lord Inquisitor Dhar. I again went to the Tricorn Palace. I was escorted to Lord Dhar’s study where I was asked to leave any weapons. I had come dressed in a more civilian manner so I was not armed but allowed the scan to be sure. A figure in a deeply hooded robe entered and Lord Dhar said this being would escort me to the vaults. I figured this was a servitor of some kind and followed the creature. Passing through several secure checkpoints we were admitted to the vaults. I was a bit curious about why the servitor was allowed but soon understood. The deep hood and robes had concealed the Lord Inquisitor Caidin himself. I bowed in respect to his office and we talked some on the way to the vault in question. He asked why I needed to see this document and I again relayed that this would have been information passed from Rogue Trader to heir and that chain had been broken for me. He probed on how such a storied commander like my father had come to his end and I told the story of pirates and the ghost light grenades. He seemed satisfied. Whether he knew I was telling the Mechanicum spun lie or the truth he did not let on. He said I had 20 minutes to look over the document and I could not copy it or remove it. I said I of course understood and he left me to read.

Dear Rogue Traders after me know that what I put to words here is for your eyes only. This redaction from the document in the House Ambrose vaults is probably for the best. The giant stasis holds on the Cassian’s Bolt were a gift from the Lord Inquisitor and the High Fabricator at the time of the gift. The gift was a payment for undertaking a risky transport by House Ambrose. The Cassian’s Bolt was at a Lathe World for extensive work when the need arose to move a creature from the Lathe World to a more secure place. The Mechanicum had brought a Yu’Voth monster, a leader of the Yu’Voth to interrogate with the Inquisition's help. They thought the huge stasis hold it was in was enough to contain it and keep it contained. It was not. It awoke, the stasis was activated and they needed to move it off the Lathe World to continue studying it, destroy it or just store it. The House Ambrose Rogue Trader volunteered to move the creature for 6 of the holds as payment. That action was a huge risk for the House so the payment was fitting.

I sat back after reading this and tried to fathom the depth of risk for those holds. I reflected on what I am now doing to secure research into a weapon to use against another threat to the Imperium. Pride in our house had been something we were instilled with but were kept humble by the service without the need for glory and fame. I felt my decisions lining up firmly with the family ethics. I could see the hand of the past touching my choices and moving me in the direction to keep the quiet pride of House Ambrose intact. All doubts I had about my agreement with the Mechanicum vanished. All worries about this endeavor for the research colony melted. I was acting as a true Ambrose Rogue Trader, I was following in the footsteps of House leaders before me. I could see the bar set for my children and their children for who should lead the house. I reflected on houses like Brulec and Awl that do not stand the pressures and test of time, greed, and lust for power. My mind goes over the glorious stories and I wonder about the hundreds of calculated risks taken for the Imperium that end quietly in secret agreements like this one, and the one I have made. I am filled with resolve and peace about my worthiness to be the Lord Captain and Rogue Trader of House Ambrose. I will not look down on the Mechanicum or the Inquisition as advisories but I will look at myself as the catalyst my family seems to be for growth, change, and furtherment of mankind. I am humbled and heartened by reading this document.

When I place the document back in its folio and leave the room I had been given to read it in, the Lord Inquisitor asks if there is anything else I need. I am struck by this question. My answer is no there is nothing more I require in this matter. In my mind, I shift my thinking on this endeavor in Gloriana. What can I do to make this happen rather than how do I make the Mechanicum and the Inquisition work together?


	11. Research and the Bones of Awl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber finishes up negotiations to get the Mechanicum and Inquisition to work together on the dead Necron world, then heads out to explore. The first target is the holdings of the dead Rogue Trader Awl (first chapter).

**Scintilla and the Lathes**

Meetings and pleasantries finished with the Inquisition the holds were loaded with materials for the research colony and the last of the crew for the Cassian’s Bolt. Inquisitor Orechiel and her retinue joined us to travel to the Lathes and then on to Gloriana. We had a few conversations about the colony and the deal I had made with Death Watch. The Inquisitor did not let on if she knew or didn't know about the Watch Station, nor did she inquire about why it was going on the asteroid moon and not the moon the research colony was going on. I am not sure why Death Watch preferred to be apart from the research colony and it was really not of concern. The trip to the Lathes was quick and Orechiel noticed and commented on the skill of my navigator. I hope that skill will not bring unwanted attention.

We arrived at the Excipo Station and met with Factor Lankovar. It would be another few days to meet with Wahh so we were escorted deeper into the Lathes to dock next to the Cassian’s Bolt. We moved crew to the Bolt and discussed the final fit-out of torpedoes and shuttles, it should not be long before I have the Bolt back in Ambrose's hands. There was also the price of the small xeno ship to agree upon. Pari had suggested a trade station with a few changes. Trade stations usually had an arboretum to help supply food, we would not need that with it in orbit of Drucilla. Her suggestion was to replace the arboretum with a landing area for fighters and bombers to add to system defense. That appeared to be a fair price and not an uncommon change so it was agreed, a trade station for the smaller of the xeno ships. The larger one I will hold for other colony issues or improvements. Next was the meeting with Forge Master Wahh, Inquisitor Oreciel and myself. The three of us sitting down to talk with or various retinues was not as nerve-wracking after having seen the reason Ambrose was given the stasis holds. House Ambrose routinely acted as catalyst or lubrication between groups in the Imperium, notably the Mechanicum and the Inquisition. I laid out my proposal of thirds between the Mechanicum, the Inquisition, and House Ambrose. The Mechanicum and Inquisition would be doing the bulk of the research work into what happened here, how it worked to neutralize the Necrons regenerative abilities, and if it could be harnessed and used. House Ambrose would provide support staff, a front for transportation of supplies and materials going back into the Calixis Sector, and the bulk of building the colony on the moon around Primus. All parties would share information freely, no redacted versions. Inquisitor Orechiel added the caveat of if the knowledge was ‘too dangerous for anyone to know’ it would not be shared. I called her on that and suggested we lay out what ‘too dangerous’ would include since that warning could be used for anything. We then moved to the more mundane task of choosing a location on the moon and hashing out a list of what was needed. I offered the empty holds of the Artemis to take some materials out when we returned. Wahh said the Mechanicum would have to pull together resources and transport them out later. I loaded the holds of the Artemis and the salvage ship with the pieces House Ambrose would be providing to the endeavor. With the details settled, holds full and agreements signed we departed the Lathes.

I was a bit loath to leave once again without the Ambrose flagship but soon, I was assured, we would have it back. Being docked alongside it, touring the refit, and swearing the crew into service made leaving him there the more irksome. I could not complain really. The Artemis is comfortable and familiar and a powerful ship in her own right. The Cassian’s Bolt is home and reminders of so much of what is now gone. I spent some time in the Rogue Traders quarters packing up my father’s, brothers' and sister's things. Their quarters and my old rooms would be turned over to my children and I wanted to give them a clean slate. I am not sure what to do with these ghosts but for now, they are stored, I will sort through things later.

**Home Again and on to Exploration**

The trip home was uneventful and fast. There was a short delay at Footfall due to a warp storm but then it was home to Caffa System. We stopped to pick up two of the Habblocks to be used at the research colony at Gloriana Primus. I also left a battalion of Sisters to be a home guard and some of the Hosplitars I acquired while at Scintilla. 

It was short hop to Gloriana and then about a month setting up the colony and settling the Inquisitors and my colonists. The colony will be fairly self-sufficient. They have an arboretum, Habblocks, labs and a landing bay for the gun cutters storage and maintenance. The Mechanicum would add more lab blocks and possibly a manufactorum when they arrive. Codes were settled for use by ship crews and the choirs and I had asked Pari to tap her family for a leader of this research colony. I would need someone firm and not under the sway of the Inquisition or Mechanicum to keep the two other parties in check. Pari had pulled a cousin to her, Danya Shadi. I gave him the same title, Istander, as Sera on Drusilla and made sure he understood that he was in command there. He seemed the type of man who was not likely to allow himself to be walked over. With things settled we left for Caffa.

Now we got into something more than just resettling House Ambrose, exploration. We had been holding the maps from the Rogue Trader Awl’s ship for years and now was the time to use them. Yoshi had been going over the maps and the only thing left to do was make the trip so he could make his own maps. The Artemis would be taking the Caladrius, the salvage ship with the stronger drives, along with giving the ability to bring anything interesting back with us. There were two systems that it looked like Awl spent most of his time in so we decided those would be the best place to start. One was a bit closer than the other so that was the target for exploration first. We jumped from Caffa to Footfall as that was the frame of reference Yoshi had with the Benetek maps, from there it was a jump to the unknown, at least unknown to us.

We left the warp and found ourselves at the edge of a system centered around a dying red star. The only planet we picked up initially was a gas giant that was venting gas into the area around it. Yoshi was unsure if it was a principle of the planet or the dying star’s gravity. As we moved in closer we picked up a number of smaller bodies in orbit of the gas giant. They ranged in size from asteroids to planets in their own right. At that point we picked up a beacon on one of the planet-sized moons of the gas giant. It was human, repeating so probably a landing beacon. We moved in closer and hailed the beacon area. I was not sure what to expect out here and after so much time on their own, but we got a response asking who we were. I answered Lord Captain Amber Ambrose, and inquired if they were a holding of the Rogue Trader Awl. They stated they were and I asked to speak with whomever was their leader. It took them some time to get back to me but I was then addressed by what sounded like an older gentleman who wanted to know who we were and what we wanted. I told him I had news of their Rogue Trader. There was a pause and we were asked to come down to the surface as they had no way of coming up. Pari and the four Battle Sisters all expressed some concern at the request but there was going to be no other way it seemed. I took the Astarte lander and a gun cutter with armsmen ready for whatever might be there.

The surface was frozen and we had been given codes to transmit when we got close to open bay doors for their landing area. Once we landed and the giant doors closed we disembarked cautiously. There was a small crowd in the landing area waiting. In the crowd, there was a group standing forward of the rest that looked to be made up of older gentlemen. I removed my helm and addressed them. One stepped forward and again asked what we wanted. Again, I told them I had news of their Rogue Trader and asked if we could speak somewhere. I was led to a council chamber where it was a bit warmer but not much. The room had a large crystal formation in the middle of the room and there was a table curving around it. I stood on the far side of the crystal and broke the news of the death of their Rogue Trader. There was silence for a time and then one of them asked what I wanted of them. I explained I was a Rogue Trader myself and I was exploring to see what Awl had found out here and map it for the Imperium. There were some whispers exchanged between them and I spoke without them asking the question I felt was on their minds. I told them I was not here to take them as slaves or any such thing. I offered to aid them if they needed, and after looking around the landing bay it was clear they were in need. Things seemed to relax a bit and I asked when they had last seen Awl. It had been about 6 years since Awl was last there, he had left to get help with the whispers. Whispers? The council explained people had been taken by whispers. It started as dreams and then the person would act out violently, killing friends, family, anyone around them. Some blew up things, destroyed machinery and others just raved like madmen. I asked to see one of these mad people and they said they did not allow themselves to be caught. They would kill themselves if they could not escape. Some of the other council members said it had started some time ago and some people had tried to escape the whispers by going to the other asteroid moons to hide. I asked if there was a guard regiment left and was introduced to a Sargent, who had been third in command of the guard here. This gentleman was much more useful for information. He filled in the timeline more, gave us information about wasp-like ships they had seen in the system before they lost flight capability. We were also told they were holding a young man who had recently started acting strangely. There was also some footage of the behavior of the people who were hearing the whispers. I asked to see the young man and we were taken to an area with cells, far more cells than I would think a colony of this size would need.   
In a cell was a young man who just sat. He did not look up as we approached, nor did he respond when addressed. Both Yoshi and Zalavant looked at him as only psykers can and said he was touched by the warp but in an odd manner, not demons but definitely, warp touched. Zalavant tried to reach the young mans mind and found a vast presence pushing the man's presence, his soul, into a corner of his mind. Zalavant could not read anything of the man but the presence was writhing in anger and hatred. The hate and anger was aimed at all like the man, all humans. The astropath tried to push the presence away and the effort made him glow with the power of the God Emperor. Zalavant shared with me what he had seen and his impressions of what it might be. 

I knelt beside him and spoke to him. He looked at me but it was like he saw through me. I closed my eyes and began a prayer of exorcism. I could hear the Battle Sisters behind me kneel also to lend their prayers to my efforts. I laid a hand on the young man’s arm and his head snapped up and his eyes met mine. ‘We hate you’ a voice spoke through him. I do not know how to explain the voice other than it sounded vast and deep. It was so full of rage and loathing I could feel it and it chilled me. Who are you I asked it, it answered with more vitriol and anger. I let the golden light of the exorcism and the God-Emperor flow from me to this young man and the vast entity screeched in pain. The scream echoed off the cell walls, down the corridor and was the sound of sheer pain and agony. I felt the push back of power trying to keep the golden light from touching it but even I could see the golden light flow from my hand over the body of this young man. The screech subsided and the young man fell over against me. One of the Hosplitars knelt beside me and tended to him. We settled him on a cot in the cell and I turned back to the waiting Sargent and guard to find them kneeling. 

I had forgotten I was no longer wearing the Sororitas armor. I wore the Lorica and it had some markings of the Sororitas but these men did not know I was a Battle Sister as well as Rogue Trader. I had just performed a miracle before them and they were showing respect for the ability. Leaving the Hosplitar to tend to the man I addressed the guard, asking them to stand. I explained to the Sargent that I was also a Battle Sister and had used the rite of exorcism to expel and possibly learn what held him. Feeling the vast presence pricked something in memory, looking at the wasp-like ship images and consulting with Yoshi and some of the other sisters it became clear what the whispers were caused by . . . Yu’voth. Yu’voth used the warp to enslave the minds of other beings. They also used the warp to alter themselves and the beings they enslave. I should say used to, in collective Imperium knowledge the Yu’voth were extinct. Their constructs and ruins were still found from time to time but they as a people were gone. It would appear that this system had been a Yu’voth holding. The vast presence behind the man's mind was not one being but many but also not a true being. It was the echo of the collective minds so it was flat and lacking a conscious depth of a real mind. So while Yu’voth was bad, it being just constructs I was a bit more hopeful we could end this, we just needed to know where the constructs were being made and destroy it.

The Hospiltar let me know the man was resting but would probably not recover. I knew this kind of sublimation by a warp entity or warp power destroyed the host. There was going to be nothing to do for this man but give him the Emperor’s Mercy. We roused him enough to speak with him a little, allow his wife to speak with him before he was given a quiet overdose of sleep medication. I was told some others nearby had collapsed when I did the exorcism but seemed to be alright now. They have been in the early stages of influence, and while vulnerable to the influence would probably recover.

There was much to do here to set things right. The colony's ships were all grounded due to needing parts to fix them. That was easy enough to get started on, the crew of the Caladrius had put Dart systems back together once already and they felt sure they could cannibalize parts to get one of them up and running again. Pari suggested trying to catch the Cassian’s Bolt before it left Footfall for home. They could purchase foodstuffs, fuel, and parts that these people desperately needed, we would hash out the cost later. The Bolt’s firepower would also be welcome in hunting down this Yu’voth construct and destroying it. The Sargent gave us a map of the system features and a rundown on what had been here. There was The Cog, a Mechanicum base on a moon closer in orbit of the gas giant, an artist colony on another moon, and Awl had a private planet for house holdings. There was also a gas refining platform in orbit, none of these other holdings had been in communication with this main colony for some time. I decided the best thing to do was send a message to Footfall and Drucilla for the Bolt, let the salvage crew work on the system ships at the main colony and I would take the Artemis out hunting.

I decided the Cog would be of the most use out here and getting it back up and running would be a boost, so that is what we headed for first. Ships sensors were useless after getting deeper in the outgas clouds from the gas giant so Yoshi had to use his abilities to be the auger array for the ship. It was not long before we found one of the wasp looking ships floating in the dusty clouds of gas and particles. I was not taking any chances with it so we drifted a bit and then took our shot. Two volleys and the thing was destroyed! With the destruction, I again felt a wave of hatred and anger, but again it was flat, no real being behind it. Yoshi was also able to pick up their drive signature and we could follow it back a ways. It might not take us to the construct but it is good to know Yoshi can do that. If we can get enough lines back to a point we might be able to get a better idea of where to look for the nuclei for this problem.


	12. Guerrilla Warfare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things at Awl's former holdings get deep and complicated. The Cassian's Bolt is on the way with aid but there is much to do until they arrive. And the question of survivors of house Awl is answered

I am finally able to stop for some time and write an account of our months here in Awl’s holdings. It has been a lot of cat and mouse hunting of crystal wasp-like ships, whisper crewed system ships, and establishing the state of things here. The Cassian’s Bolt is on the way with help and supplies, we have picked off a number of enemy ships, and reestablished the Cog and colony supply system. It is still a few months till the Bolt arrives and there is much to do in the way of getting this colony stable. I am also faced with a sticky issue. Awl has an heir.

**Outpost 23, Gas Mining Platform**

The first place we wanted to check was the gas mining platform as fuel was going to be a concern. It was slow going in the swirling gas clouds and we needed to be cautious since we were about blind in the gas and warp disturbances. There were wasp ships, some system ships, asteroids, and any number of other hazards out there. Yoshi was using his sensory abilities to be better eyes for us which helped tremendously. After about 6 days we came close to where the gas mining platform should be. Slowing we let Yoshi look and see if he could tell if we were way off or close. We were right on. Slowing we passively scanned and found a transport and two of the crystal wasp ships circling the platform. The platform appeared to have power and seemed to be in operation. I decided that two wasps and a transport were a bit much to take on just now. We got to look and see if it was still there and it is, also it is still functional another good sign.

**The Cog**

We cleared the gas clouds long enough to send a message to the Cassian’s Bolt and give a little time for them to respond. When they did we got and ‘understood, supplies and help incoming’, which was good to hear even if it would be about 4 months before they arrived. Evidently, they had made it back to Caffa which was alright, supplies would come from our own stores and not overpriced at Footfall.

We head back into the orbits to the small moon/planet where the Cog was located. The sergeant and council said they had been out of touch with the Cog for some time but they had been the Mechanicum support outpost here in the system. It was slow progress and Yoshi was doing a better job sensing than the ship auger was doing. We came upon the body the Cog was supposed to be located and found a large mobile barge on the surface. It was set on a ring of track which it slowly crept along on. Settling into an orbit we hailed the outpost. The being answering sounded very much like someone who was holding onto sanity by the thinnest of threads. He introduced himself as Magos Zinoviev Tevla, and he stated the barge was full of ‘traitors and rebels’ and he would be very grateful if we would help him get rid of them. We agreed and he gave us some direction on how to find him in the ‘control center’. I and others did not have a great feeling about this but the best way to get information was to go down there. We took the Astarte Lander and a gun cutter down. Once we entered the barge we were met by the ‘traitors and rebels’ who were nothing of the sort. There was a bit of confusion, as the Mechanicum we encountered called me and Astarte but they offered to take us to the Tech-Priest who was in charge of the traitors as it were. When we arrived at the control center, the actual control center, we were greeted by several more low-level tech-priests including one Tech-Priest Hiroko Yamanaka. She had assumed control after the Magos had departed from his sanity. She explained he had locked himself in his labs and had been working on questionable lines of research. The main one was trying to servetorize all of the crew of the barge. She said he had become obsessed with sleep, or trying to keep the staff here from sleeping because that is how the whispers ‘got them’. I explained to her what we had found and that we were here to help. We both agreed the first help we could give them was to get that Magos under control, even if that meant dead. A few of the support crew offered to lead us to the labs the crazed Magos had locked himself. We worked our way through the barge and came to the hall and doors of the labs. There were bodies strewn about the hall and a couple of turrets guarding the doors. Took a few bursts of fire to destroy the turrets and then Janus set to work on the door and getting it open. I could hear the Magos raging over speakers at us, telling us we were after the wrong people and they never listened to him, he knew how to deal with the whispers. Once we got in   
With the lab secured, we returned to the control center to assess what was needed to get the barge back in shape to support the colony. They needed fuel, as did the mining colony, and materials. The mining colony had brought them processed metals to make parts and such and they had not received anything in some time. The Tech-Priest had rigid up a Gellar field which was helping the whisper issues, very resourceful. Janus and his reclimators and staff helped get some basic repairs done but we promised to return with supplies to help get them running again.

**Awl’s Personal Estate**

Once we had the Cog settled and promised to return with supplies, we moved on to the next target, the personal estate for House Awl. It was going to be a slow 5 or 6 days there we thought. The gasses from the gas giant and the stirred up warp and gravitational fluctuations from the huge star were playing havoc with sensors. Yoshi was helping by sensing via the warp and it is a good thing he was! He warned us that a wasp ship and a transport were going to intersect our path. I wanted the transport in usable shape so we decided to surprise kill the wasp and ram the transport. Dear rogue trader after me, ramming operations are tricky. I will not say I made a mess of it but I was a bit too direct. As we moved in and fired we destroyed the wasp after a few volleys and rammed the transport. The transport slid up the prow of the Artemis and was good and stuck for the moment. I sent gun cutters with borders to take the ship and after a few hours, we had control of the ship. The crew was given the Emperor’s Mercy and a prize crew took control of the transport. It took a little maneuvering but we got it off the prow and escorted it back to the mining colony. The council was pleased to have it back and even more pleased to know the Cog was ready to help all they needed was raw materials. The council would crew the transport and start ferrying materials to the Cog. I waited with the Artemis to escort the transport back to the Cog and then we went on to the estate.

House Awl had put their personal estate on an asteroid. It had a large notch cut in the side, about the size for a cruiser, that appeared to have a docking set up in it. We decided to use it and nestled the Artemis in the notch and set to getting the docking facilities working. There were some large bulkhead doors that were closed and seemed to open into the side of the asteroid and there was a path that led up into the gardens around the estate building. We decided to move up the path and come in through the front of the house. As we approached the level of destruction spoke of there being little possibility of anyone surviving this. The front of the house was smashed in or collapsed from gun and laser fire. We stepped into a grand foyer, or what had been a grand foyer, and all was silent. The house had been enclosed in some kind of field to keep an atmosphere around the grounds, but now, exposed to the vacuum of space, everything was rimed with frost. A few bodies floated eriely in the open foyer and the walls had blast marks on them. There were three wings to this building so we decided to work from left to right. 

The first wing was guest quarters. Nicely appointed rooms or they had been, but no personal items. Some windows were boarded up or shuttered, and others were shattered. We looked through both floors and found a few bodies but no hint of stasis, bolt holes or anything a body could take refuge in. Moving back out to the foyer we noted that there were paintings with what should be plaques saying what they were but they were blank. No data left on the digital ones and even the etched plaques were now blank. No burns around them or indication on how they had been rendered blank, just missing information. The paintings were not surviving vacuum well either, most were not recognizable now. Such a shame. 

The central wing seemed to lead back into the asteroid. The doors fit the manor decor but they were made to match after the fact. The doors were partially open and the corridor was dim. Moving down ways we found ourselves in a larger room, open, some crates and debris scattered around and two softly glowing orbs near the ceiling that lit the room. We were looking around when one of the Skitarii noticed the orbs lowering toward us. As we turned one of the orbs seemed to contact the Skitarii and lighting played over it and it fell over, lifeless. We opened fire! Multiple rounds from Sisters and Skitarii destroyed the two orbs which shattered like glass and released black smoke. Stepping back toward the door we noticed several more orbs floating into this large open room from a side passage. Ten more orbs floated in and came for us. We opened fire! Yoshi warned us the black smoke was warp energy so we should keep clear of the shattered orbs. It took a number of rounds and we lost some Skitarii but we destroyed them all.

Janus looked at the first Skitarii that went down. It seemed intact, a little scorched but there was no programming left in the hardware. Janus seemed confused then spoke ‘datavores’. He explained he had only heard of them but they could wipe all programming from a device. It was how Yu’voth reprogramed devices for their own use. It might explain why none of the plaques had information anymore, the datavores could absorb all data, written or code. Well, if they had been loose here there was little information to recover unless we found something protected. We sent servo skulls down the passageway the orbs had come from to see what was there while we looked around this large room. It was hard to tell what it had been for but the crates were food stuffs, supplies of various kinds, and parts for use here in the estate. There were older cog symbols on the walls in places. I asked Janus what this could have been. He thought possibly an observation station or a supply drop station. The skulls reported more machinery rooms and storage rooms but no labs. Big doors at the back of the room led into a reactor room, but the reactor was cold. Janus said after evaluating the panels and such that there was no information on these consol cogitators. Again, the datavores had probably absorbed all the coding. There was another set of doors opposite the passage the orbs had come from and it’s doors were closed tight. Scans showed some atmosphere on the other side but just barely. It took Janus a bit to give the doors some basic programming back in order to get them to open again. As they slid open we were greeted with more bodies. There were 5 or 6 here at the door, fingernails broken from clawing at the door. Looking around down the passage there were a number of doors. We explored cautiously but found nothing but a few more bodies, supplies, some machine rooms that had life support machinery and water purification systems. They had tried to seek security and hide, but shutting down the reactor had killed them. I was standing looking back up the passage when I noticed a spray of ice on the floor at my feet. It looked like a pipe had broken behind the wall and water sprayed out but this wall looked solid. Janus scanned it and said there was nothing behind the wall, not even rock. Then he took a few steps down the passage and scanned again and registered rock behind the walls. I knew what this was, it was a bolt hole. The Cassian’s Bolt had a number of these installed after an ancestor lost the ship to Chaos Marines for a time. They held food, water, weapons and medical supplies and when scanned from outside registered as a solid wall. We just needed to find the activation mechanism for the door. One of the Sisters found an odd button on an elevator panel at the far end of the passage. Pushing it released the panel revealing a bolt room. There were three stasis casks there, a number for gene locked void containers and other supplies. It was a good little bolt room and there was a functioning cogitator here though it was tied back to now blank main cogitators. Janus moved to one of the stasis casks and examined it. He turned and motioned me over. There was a child in this stasis cask and the monitor panel showed he was alive.

Now that I have time to sit and reflect on this I can put my thoughts and emotions to some kind of order when at the time they were many and chaotic. If this was the child the Sargent and council had spoken of Awl having he was heir to this colony. There was a deep chord struck within me of understanding what this young man faced. I had been as he is now not that long ago. Alone, no family, unsure what assets were left. I had age and training to help make my way but this was just a boy. He had no warrant of trade, no family to advise him, just the colony, and the state of things was not great. I sit here in the study of the Rogue Traders quarters on the Artemis, surrounded by reminders of my forefathers. I have Pari and her knowledge of our business. I have ships, not just the flagship but others I have taken. This boy has so little. A colony tormented by Yu’voth constructs, no family, no ship, no warrant . . . Pari, Serene, and I had a lengthy conversation about the legal ramifications of finding an heir. We pulled Serepha in to consult on law and how it applied out here. The colony could be mine by right of salvage. There was no legit Rogue Trader anymore so claims to the colony would be decided out here by the law of the expanse. The whole situation was too close to my own and I was finding myself getting lost in thoughts about if I had not been able to rebuild or if the Artemis had not existed. I decided that until we woke the young man, and consulted with the council there was nothing to be done at the moment.

I ordered the stasis cask taken back to the Artemis along with all the gene locked void chests. I would not leave him here and the void chests might have funds, deeds, maybe the warrant original, and they should not be left here. Once the cask was removed the rest of the Skitarii and Sisters explored the last wing with me. This wing was personal quarters and had suffered much more damage. There were personal items here though no study per say though it could be in the last few rooms in the hall that were just demolished. There were books but they were blank, more plaques on statues and paintings also blank. Moving back through we gathered any serviceable weapons and headed back to the Artemis.

**Waking the Sleeper**

When I got back aboard and settled I went to the medbay. I did not want to leave the young man in stasis though it would have been safer. There was also the matter of check the void chests for soul gems. I figured and had been told by the Sargent that Awl dabbled in the cold trade and soul gems. Seeing his ship bridge impaled by part of an Eldar ship spoke to that being true. I know they can fetch great prices but I did not want them on my ship. Unfortunately, the young man in stasis was the only one who could open the chests. I mean I could have Janus open them but it seemed rude and disrespectful. So the only correct thing to do was wake him.

It took a bit for him to shake off the hibernation of stasis and he was very confused when he did. He asked for his mother and nanny and it took a bit to get him to settle enough to listen to what I had to say. I introduced myself and told him I was also a Rogue Trader like his father. He said his name was Chiron Thomas Awl. I told him there was no easy way to tell him but his father was dead. He asked about his mother and nanny, I had to tell him they were also dead. The clever young man asked why he should believe me. I did not really have an answer. Why should he believe me? I was not sure how I could do anything to prove my intent other than continue on what we had been doing. I asked him to open the chests for me. Again, the clever boy wanted to know why. I explained I was just looking for soul gems because they were dangerous to keep. He agreed, we looked and found none. There was a fair amount of bullion, a pistol of an ancient make, and folders of papers. Once we looked through them I closed them up again and let him see the vault I would store them in and that no one but I could open. He seemed okay with it though I am not sure a seven-year-old boy would say to a grown woman that he was not happy with that. I showed him to quarters near mine and asked Serene and Serepha to have a care for the young man. 

The young man said he had an uncle but was not allowed to see him. Zalavant made the observation that the family might use him for access to the colony and profits from it. I countered with the family might think the same of me, though rights of salvage were on my side of that I did not need the boy. It was all speculation and what-ifs at the moment. The more immediate concern was stopping the whispers and getting this place back up and running.

**Artist Colony**

The last major outpost to check was an artist colony. I did not have high hopes about its condition but we needed to know its status. Another slow few days to where the outpost should be. We got to the position it should be and found it several degrees off from its mapped position. It was unclear to any of us whether dying star gravity could shift and asteroids position but we still needed to check it out. We hailed the outpost and got no response. Moving a bit closer to the asteroid we hailed again and scanned. There was a huge tower with gardens around it. It seemed to have some sort of void shield over it. Getting no answer to hails we decided to just go down. It was a short trip.

Landing in the garden area we were surrounded by statues in various states of ruin. They looked like they had been shot at, repeatedly. The statues were of Blessed Saints of the Imperium, Drust, Katherine, the God-Emperor of Mankind but why were they out here. Looking around the garden of statues we were confused at what they were doing out here, and why they were in this state. I asked Zalavant to sense if there were any living minds here. After a few moments, he said he sensed no one, the artist colony appeared to be a casualty of the whispers. We stood discussing if it was worth looking into the tower when someone noticed a statue move. Then a few more moved! More started a grinding lurching motion and moving in our direction. Seeing as there were no artists to rescue we decided to leave and bombard the tower from orbit. No one knew of anything Imperium make that could make statues move so we figured it was Yu’voth and destroyed it all.

**Astropath Citadel**

The last outpost to get the status of was the Astropathic Citadel. This is where Awl had put his choir which made sense, the body it was on was further from the gas giant and not so deep in the swirling maelstrom of gases. When we got close ship sensors worked well enough to tell us there was a large, well-armed citadel with a shield over it. We were not getting clear life signs so decided to hail the citadel. After 5-10 minutes a very garbled message came in return. The words were so muddled we asked them to boost and repeat if they could. ‘Help’ and ‘people hurt’ were the only words we could make out. Zalavant took some time and said there were a few conscious minds, together, and seemed untouched by the Yu’voth whispers. The mind he could get deeper into was in pain, searing levels of pain. I decided we would go down. Taking the Astarte lander with a stasis pod, the medica and a hospilitar along with troops we found the closest docking hatch to where the life signs were. We ended up a few decks below the life signs and we made our way up as quickly and safely as we could. There were bodies everywhere! Dashed against bulkheads, blasted apart, some looked like they had cuts from a chain sword, some bodies were old and rotting others looked newer and still bleeding some. We finally came to a closed bulkhead door and rapped on it. After answering who we were and that we had medical help with us the door started opening. It was obvious it was being hand pumped open and it took a little time. When we got in we found three PDF troopers. One was laying on the floor with badges over his abdomen, one was missing his arm from just above the elbow and the third was a large female trooper, Corporal Merilyn Snow. Letting the medica and hosplitar care for the wounded I asked Corporal Snow to tell us what happened here. She told a similar story to what we heard on the Svard, people started having dreams, hearing voices and then turned violent. Someone had tossed a satchel of blasting charges in the choir chamber as they were gathering to send a message to Lord Awl, so the choir was dead. Corporal Snow had pulled some people together to try and get to the colony but they had been harried in their efforts. The thing doing the stalking chilled me to hear her description. It was a construct of bodies. It appeared roughly human-shaped but it wore a ‘skin’ or armor of bodies. When it took damage it just shed the damaged bodies and incorporated new ones. Corporal Snow said she had been able to attack the thing and it seemed surprised each time she made her initial strike like it did not see her but it was after the others with her. As she was explaining I had Zalavant telling me telepathically he could not see her, she was a hole and not visible to him. She seemed to agitate both Zalavant and Yoshi. Blank kept coming to mind and I recalled having heard about people that astropaths could not ‘see’ because their soul had no interaction with the warp, Blanks. They were used as guards on the Black Ships, ships used to collect psykers and take them to Holy Terra to be either fed to the Golden Throne or turned into Astropaths and Astropath Transcendents. Blanks could not be or were very hard for psyker to see or affect so they made good guards in dealing with psykers not yet bound to the Emperor. I asked her what she was and she seemed confused. I asked if she realized she was a blank or partially blank. She did not seem phased by finding out, more like it explained some things for her. She said she did not have many friends and Jonsey (the PDF trooper missing his arm) had been one of the few not put off by her, hence why she worked hard to protect him. The Medica said the trooper with the abdominal wound needed to go in stasis to make it out of here but Jonsey was stable enough to walk it. We packed up the trooper into stasis and helped pick up their gear. Corporal Snow started pulling server blades from the main terminal in the room. Janus moved to help her and she explained there was data they had been accumulating on them and it might help in the fight. We headed back to the lander carefully picking our way through bodies and rubble. As we turned the corner to head to the docking hatch we were faced with a large human-shaped creature. It stood about 8-9 feet tall and was covered in bodies. It lunged lighting fast at Jonesy, pushing past me. As it did I struck it with the sword breaker and it screeched in pain stopping its plunge toward Jonsey. It took a number of Blessed bolter rounds to bring the thing down. Even Snow’s chain sword only seemed to make nicks in the bodies and not really penetrate. She was right though, it seemed surprised by her attack, like it had not noticed or seen her. Once the creature was down we loaded up on the lander to get out of there. 

Once back on the Artemis I decided, after speaking with Snow, that we would leave the Astropathic Citadel in one piece. There were fuel reserves there, turrets and other useful pieces that could be salvaged later or left and used in rebuilding the citadel.

This was the last major outpost so we decided to go back to the mining colony and check in with them. There were a number of hollowed out asteroids to explore, system ships to find and wasps to eliminate but it would all be for not if the colony did not survive so checking in was needed. It was going to be about 6-7 days back to Svard, the main planet with the mining colony on it. Again Yoshi was of much more help than ship sensors and a few days into the trip we found two wasp ships and a system ship, a tanker, in the swirling gases. We slowed and slid in behind them and destroyed one wasp quickly. The other turned to fight but was destroyed almost as quickly. I let my second take the ramming and boarding action. I needed a little more experience so he took command and I learned. He maneuvered and slid the Artemis’s prow along the side of the tanker, a brush to tell it we were there. With the nudge I let the boarding parties deploy. It took a number of hours to find and neutralize the crew but once it was done we had a tanker, mostly full, to return to Svard. The fuel was sorely needed and it was good to get it out of the hands of the Yu’voth constructs. We also got information from the ship. They had been doing a loop to refuel the system ships and bring materials back to the gas mining platform. We learned there was a mining ship out harvesting asteroids which would be another good one to get out of the enemy's hands.

We will be spending our time until the Bolt arrives engaging in Guerrilla Warfare. We will destroy the wasps when we find them, take as many system ships as we can even if they just sit in the landing area on Svard, and access the effects of what we are doing on the Yu’voth consciousness. Serene and Seraphe suggested I might need to do another exorcism to gauge the effect but that can wait for the moment. Our first target is the mining ship, removing it from the enemy will limit their resources for building more of the crystal wasp ships. I still am not sure how finding an heir to the Awl holdings will play out. The boy seems a bit spoiled and entitled but he is only 7. Pari and I have talked about the costs of what we are doing and what would be fair compensation for our efforts. There is also the legal and moral status of my salvage claims to this colony. Legal says it is mine if I want it, there is no Rogue Trader to claim it. Morally, and I admit a lot of personally, the child is the heir. I do not know who issued his father’s warrant of trade or if it could be reissued. I do not know if the young man wants to follow in his father's footsteps or has the metal to do so. The only thing I can do at the moment is to set a price for the work we are doing. One price if they become an Ambrose holding and a different price if they stay as an independent colony. If they wish to be independent there are other considerations like trade, getting a warp-capable ship for them and the child. What happens to young Master Awl?


	13. Silencing the Whispers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rogue Trader Amber faces off with an ancient Yu'voth construct and builds a colony back up.

Again I sit reflecting back on the months as we move on to a new system. It was another 4 months cleaning up the system, setting the colony back on its feet, and finalizing a payment and trade agreement.

**Exploring and Reclaiming Ships**

Once the tanker transport was set down on Svard we decided we would spend the time waiting for the Bolt looking for other system ships, colonists, and assets in the system. We could also kill off any wasp ships we ran across. The first system ship we wanted to get as the asteroid miner we got the information off the tanker about. Removing the tanker and the mining ship took apart supplies from the Yu’voth construct so rebuilding what we destroyed would be harder. It took a few days scanning and slowly traveling to find the mining ship and the asteroid I t was currently working on. It was mining away and we only saw one of the crystal wasp ships, so we slowed and moved in to destroy the wasp. It was completely surprised and we destroyed it in a few volleys and then moved into the mining ship to deploy boarding crews. As we sat nose to nose with the miner letting the boarders work through the ship Yoshi sensed 2 more of the crystal wasp ships. I had to leave the boarding crews to take the mining ship and turn to fight the wasps. There were several rounds exchanged but ultimately the crystal wasps were destroyed. The boarding crews took the mining ship and we took it back to Svard. We had to leave it in orbit unmanned as there was no more room in the hangar bay at the colony and we did not have another Gellar field generator to put on it.

Once the boarding crew was back aboard we headed off again. The council said people took shuttles and fled to the hollowed asteroids to try and escape the whispers so we just started scanning the asteroids for shuttles, or system ships. The first one we came across had a low power reading. Moving in closer it looked like it had been hollowed out but the holes had been roughly patched and there was a docking slip. We docked and moved in to see what could be found here. There appeared to be an airlock system so we opened the outside doors and stepped into a landing area. The large outer doors closed and the inner ones could then be opened. The inner doors revealed a jungle inside the asteroid! There were manicured gardens, or what had been manicured gardens filled with variations of the fungi the colonists on Svard had been surviving on. They were bigger, healthier and had been cared for, we also found a small lab, harvest and packaging area, and machinery to circulate water and air. Janus went through the cogitators and data slates he could find and filled us in. It appeared a Biologus Tech-Priest came out here to see about solving the food issues. He crossed the native fungi and promoted the larger growth to give more volume of food. He had also set up composting for dead plants and waste to be put back into the soil here in these gardens. This was new to the system and not part of Awl’s creations here. This would be very helpful to the colony in keeping them in food. Unfortunately, we found the Biologus, dead. We were not sure how he died but we also found a few Skitarii guards dead. The Biologus made some notes about the Skitarii acting strangely but we could find nothing to suggest anything but the whispers. We did a little work there to make sure things kept running till we got things in the system settled. We did take the Cog shuttle sitting in the airlocks and returned it to the Cog. It was another shuttle to be used later which was a small victory. Exploring we found a few more shuttles but no living colonists. We returned to Svard with the shuttles and checked in with them. 

I had been thinking of how to locate the Yu’voth construct and had put in a request to the colonists. I asked them to capture anyone showing signs of being under whisper control and put them in cells. I had thought about doing another exorcism to see what response I got but I then thought of the abilities my transcendent had to track and locate via his mind. It would involve him touching the mind of one who had succumbed to the whispers and following the thread back to the controlling mind. I would not force Zalavant to do this but it might be the best way to find the controlling ship of this mess and destroy it. Talking with him and the sypher master transcendent, Hermes Stellan, they agreed it was the best way and Zalavant had the skill, power, and back up to do it. We also decided to stop telling the council so much as a couple of the members had a slight warp taint about them, meaning they were falling to the whispers. So we did not tell them about the jungle gardens or the timeline for when the Bolt might arrive.

We were just getting ready to head out to explore more asteroids and return the shuttle to the Cog when Zalavant received a message, the Bolt had arrived! We decided to meet them away from Svard and keep the Bolt’s arrival to ourselves. Getting out there we took a day to transfer command and rearrange the crew. Usually, a command change was a celebration but it would have to wait. We did the swearing of the new crew to the ship and the blood bond of the crew to ship for me and my command retenue, a tradition from the beginning of House Ambrose. We went over the plan of attack while foodstuffs and repair parts were transferred to shuttles to take to the surface. I took the Artemis back to Svard and delivered badly needed parts and food. I requested the Dart system ship we had repaired and 10 of the whisper fallen colonists. The colonists were put in stasis and taken aboard the Dart. I crewed the Dart from the Bolt and we headed off to the gas platform.

I was aboard the Cassian’s Bolt, Zalavant, and Hermes and the Sisters guarding the astropaths were aboard the Dart, the Artemis and Calendrius were under their own commands but with orders to remain silent, do not attack anything thill the Cassian’s Bolt unleashed hell on the Yu’voth. It took almost 6 days to slowly maneuver to the gas platform. We dodged a wasp ship and managed to get fairly close to the platform unobserved. At this point, it was in the hands of Zalavant. I will relay what was reported to me by the Sisters aboard the Dart.  
  
_Two Sisters removed one of the colonists who was badly fallen to the whispers. He was brought before Zalavant who reached into the man’s crazed mind. It did not take more than a few moments before Zalavant started relaying the path down, down below the gas mining platform, beneath the surface of roiling seas of the gas giant. A gunner from the Bolt aboard the Dart was relaying the location as best he could to the bridge of the Bolt. After what felt like hours the Sisters felt the shudder of torpedoes exploding and they tossed the colonist back in stasis. A Hosplitar tended to Zalavant and they all moved to the command deck of the Dart._

Aboard the Cassian’s Bolt all I could do was wait. The torpedo tubes were loaded with plasma torpedoes and the crew was standing by to reload the same in all six tubes. The gunner aboard the Bolt started working out a firing solution and I watched, waiting for him to ask for the nod to fire. Watching I had moved up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder, as soon as he finished his solution I just squeezed his shoulder and he fired.  
It felt like hours to me as well till I felt the shudder of torpedo explosions. I had been whispering prayers to the God Emperor for his sift unmerciful destruction of the Yu’voth when the decks shuddered under my feet. I knew the shudder was in part the ship being pleased to be in action again and in part the explosion below us. Yoshi was again acting as auspex for the ship and called out the ships around the gas platform were coming for us and something was rising from the planet. I did not even look back at the gunner but just said ‘again’, and there was another volley. I felt more than heard the rage and hate coming from this ship below us. I felt the anger and focus searching to find the source of such insult as the torpedoes had inflicted upon it. I had given the captains free reign to shoot and destroy the Wasp ships but try and salvage the gas mining ships. For hours we circled in the dance of torpedo fire, lance strikes and return fire. The Dart and Calandrius were not a lot of help but they harried the enemy from different directions which added to the chaos of the battle. We picked off wasps and when the large sphere of a ship surfaced from the roiling clouds of the gas giant The Cassian’s Bolt unloaded torpedoes, macro canon batteries and lance strikes on it till it broke apart and exploded ripping a hole in the warp. All four ships pulled free of the ripp in the warp and it slowly closed back up.

The Cassian’s Bult shuddered in pride as I sat back on the command throne and ordered my ships to collect the gas mining ships and dock them with the gas platform. The Dart was also docked with the gas platform and the crew brought back aboard the Bolt. We gathered what we needed and crew to set a station keeping watch on the gas platform. Once aboard the platform we were a bit disheartened to find the crew here was fit for nothing but servetorization. Their minds were gone and they would never be whole again, let alone functional. There was also a good portion who had died either before the attack or as part of the attack. The good part of all of it was the platform was in one piece and functional.

The mining ships were in much the same condition as the platform, the crews were zombies, incapable of anything other than autonomic functions. We loaded the crews into the stasis hold on the Bolt and put them in stasis till we could get them to the Cog to servetorize them. We went to the Cog first to get that work going and see how they had fared in the destruction of the construct. Tech-Priest Hiroko had some casualties, people fell over bleeding from the eyes and ears, and died but not too many. She was also willing to servetorize the gas platform and mining ship crews with support. We left here with help and equipment along with 500 of the crew to start the servatorization process. We then headed to Svard.

Svard also had people who had fallen over dead and others who were without reason or faculty to function on their own. Those alive who were usable but their minds have gone were added to the stasis hold. Hosplitars and Biologus aided others who were just in need of some care. Once things were settled a bit I met with the council to settle the accounts so to speak and see how we could aid in getting things headed back into a productive manner.

I had decided this is too far-flung to be an Ambrose holding. I would not be able to really defend it or support it in a timely manner so it was better to set up trade and help them back up on their feet. I asked a 5% tith from them and for the Psyker Citadel as payment for my efforts here which they agreed to wholeheartedly. The next question was what to do with young Master Awl. The council agreed to act as a regent for him and teach him what he would need to know. During the time I was in the system I spent some time with him also and taught him some basics of business and answered, as best I could, his questions about the fate of his father and questions about the warrant. I wish I could have given him more answers but I honestly did not know a lot about his father or family. We went through the documents and found some deeds to holdings in the Calixis sector, some awards of military service from ancestors and some other family provenance documents. Serene gave a basic education guide to the council and his guardian on what he should get a good working knowledge of, I also gave her leave to pull some texts from the Bolt library. The books could be returned via the trade ship I ordered to do the trade route between Svard and Drucilla. It took a few more months to finish emptying the stasis hold of the gas mining crews and shuffle them to where they could be of most use. The jungle asteroid garden was a welcome addition and the system. It would help their food situation as well as trade with House Ambrose for non-fungi food. As we finished up with the colony I felt we were leaving them not 100% but well on their way to getting there. I had discussed with the council what they should think about purchase wise and what I would be able to do for them and what would have to run through Footfall or the Calixis Sector. We refueled, I sent the Artemis and Calandrius home with the Psyker Citadel and the Bolt was off to explore more of the maps from Awl’s ship.

**Plans for the Citadel and Drucilla**

The captain of the Artemis, Captain Martin Heath Claire, was to act in my stead in the system till my return. There was a trade station to be set up, staffed, and readied, the Psyker Citadel was to be cleaned up and set up as an Imperial Navy dock/outpost depending on what they were interested in, the Q-ship transport I ordered was to be filled with parts, food and comfort goods for Svard and sent to start that trade route until it arrived the mechanicum trade ship is to make the trip. I also asked that the Orpheus be sent to patrol the Gloriana system since the Artemis would be at Caffa. Captain Claire was to try and get in touch with Trade Admiral Saul and offer the trading post as a stop, which should get the word out slowly enough and with honorable Rogue Traders and general traders. 

As the two ships departed I reflect on how far I have come in 6 yrs. The colony on Drucilla is not nearly finished but it is far better off than when I found it. I have 4 warships and they are crewed and capable, twice what my father had. I have made the House whole from the losses suffered and then some. Settling into the quarters that are familiar and unfamiliar to me brings some comfort. The comfort of the familiar surroundings and memories. I have been slowly sorting through possessions of my siblings and parents, pulling jewelry of my mothers and sisters to my own collection, packing up my father's and brother's clothing for long-term storage, and shuffling letters and journals to my private library. I can not bring myself to read through a lot of this just yet, it still feels like snooping but someday . . . 


	14. Things That go Bump in the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Constantia Ambrose explores the second of the systems belonging to the former Rogue Trader Awl. It's never as simple as explore and claim and there are many horrifying things in the black.
> 
> Apologies to my bookmarkers, it has been a busy month and I have been lax on keeping up with writing.

**Continued Exploration of Awl’s Quartet** **  
  
**

After sending the Artemis and Calendrius back to Caffa we moved on to the second of the commonly visited systems on Awl’s maps. If the house had set down colonies it stands to reason that they would be frequently visited. At this point, it had been about 6 years since anyone had last checked on them, so the sooner the better. This system was a much younger system and star. The star was a hot white star and there were a few planets and what looked like asteroid groups who might have been trying to become a planet but just ended up as clusters of rocks in an orbit of this star. There was also a large hulk in orbit of the planet in the outer cauldron, the planet itself had a toxic/caustic atmosphere but the station was interesting. There was a signal coming from it but when we got close enough it was just an advertisement from Stricsus traders. The hulk was actually a hulk space station built off the body of a Dauntless light cruiser. There were several Xeno ships attached to the hull of known and unknown races. As we moved in closer aspuex and observation left little doubt there was not going to be much alive on the station. Parts of the hull had been peeled back and decks exposed to vacuum, debris floated around the station, and hails were met with silence. This station was dead. 

A dead station using an ancient human ship as a spine is well worth investigating so that is what we did. I took the lander and a gunship over to make sure it was empty and assess what was there. We used the landing bay on the Dauntless to set down in a relatively safe area. In the bay there was a Halo Barge that had heavier armor on it and some Xeno modifications. It seemed to be in fair shape so already this had been worth a stop. There were not many bodies around but there were marks like weapon fire had been exchanged. We decided to find the cogitators and get a condition read of this ship, determine what happened to it, and who it had been. Working our way deeper into the hull we found more signs of battle, blood spatter, weapon scorching on the walls but few bodies. The signs in high gothic were still on the walls and I noticed writing in a Xeno language under the signs. One of the Dialogus translated roughly, it was Stricsus, warning symbols, pointing directions to areas they had set up as trade halls, production, etc. It had been painted or scrawled on the bulkheads in a paint that I had a hard time making out even with the nanite enhanced vision. Stricsus see in lower wavelengths so without being able to see ultraviolet we would have missed it. We moved toward where the cogitator cores should be and found the bodies of the station's former inhabitants.  
The cores were near the Astropath Choir Chamber, so the signs seemed to be indicating. As we got closer there seemed to be a low whisper, noise, some sound we could not fathom what it could be till we rounded a corner to the split open choir chamber and a skin of horror over the walls. The walls of the flayed chamber were covered in what looked like the skins of, with heads attached, Stricsus, some humans, some other Xeno races known and unknown to us. Each seemed to moan in an eerie melody of pain and suffering. I had only heard stories and Yoshi knew some text accounts of atrocities such as this. Torcher Eldar, Drukhari, thrived and fed on the suffering and pain of living beings. These beings now flayed and mounted to the wall were here to feed the deeply twisted appetites of these vile tribe of Eldar. Janus noted that each ‘skin’ still had lungs and electrical wiring to stimulate the breath response. This was the sound we were hearing. The whispering screams of these beings in this instrument of suffering and pain. Xeno or not, this was a horrid way to perish but we left it alone for now. We were now on our guard for Drukhari. I voxed the Bolt and put them on alert for Drukhari presence in the area. We would leave this revolting construct lest its destruction warns any Eldar we were here. 

Moving beyond the choir chamber we found cogitator core archives. They had been long neglected and would take time for Janus to soothe the machine spirit enough to gather any useful information. I left him with some Skitarii guard and moved on with the Sisters and the rest of the Skitarii. The ship itself was not overly altered so the layout, while old and added onto, was familiar. We did a search of decks and some of the attached Xeno ships and found a lot of trade goods like furs, parts, weapons of all sorts of variations. There were also a number of odd items, such as a couple of dozen Ork skulls with various hats pinned to them, a large collection of swords (all different, none powered), and an Aquilla Lander covered in gold and ivory, the inside is equally decadent, wood paneling and trim, real, supple leather upholstery, a bar, various crystal, and gem touches in places. Pari suggested it could be a gift to curry favor or sold to some flashier noble or rogue trader. We also found a dueling pistol belonging to house Chorta. There was only one but I am sure House Chorta would like it back. I am not sure how to use the pistol but it could be a useful card in the hand of negotiations with that house.   
The last area we worked down to was the gem for me. We were moving toward the front of the ship on some of the lower decks and came to a huge bulkhead door. In front of the door was a cordoned off area marked with barricades, and on either side of the door were two hefty turrets. I did not think the Stricuss had made it into this area as there were the ‘danger’ symbols all around the halls leading to this point. I decided not to dance with the turrets and have Janus come take a look. It took him a bit to work his way down to us and when he did he agreed those looked like unmolested Imperium turrets. He did not think he could get to them without being filled full of holes but had an idea. He suggested I step up and request admittance. At first, I felt sure my exploritor was trying to get me killed then he thumped the chest of the Lorica I wear. “It’s Astarte armor. Who else has access to everything other than Astarte?” Nodding I agreed, even Sororitas could access areas of ships and Imperium bases that regular soldiers could not. Stepping through the break in the barricades I stepped up to the door and got a mechanical-sounding voice queering my purpose for admittance. ‘Munitions inventory’ was the first thing that popped into my brain so I went with it. I was scanned and the voice sounded again, ‘admittance granted for munitions inventory purposes’ and the huge bulkhead doors ground open.   
No one had moved through this area in a very long time. A veil of dust covered everything but we could see the marks from weapons fire and dark stains of long dried blood on the floors. The uniforms took a little thinking to recognize, Solar Auxiliary. This was a ship from after the crusades but of some age. The bulkhead doors had opened onto a long wide corridor with bays on either side of it. In the bays were Aurox armored transport, some in states of repair, and a couple just fit for nothing but parts but there were 25 usable. There were also barracks for the auxiliary with equipment for roughly 300 troops, armor, and lasrifles. The Aurox were obsolete but sturdy vehicles. I could use them on Drucilla to move planetary defense around especially with the spread-out farming outposts. The barracks motor pool unit could very easily be turned into Sororitas and I had already been granted all the patterns to produce anything Sororitas used. 30 bays with Battle Sister’s Rhinos would be a landing force to be reckoned with!   
Janus got a systems report and the ship was in fair shape. The spine was not broken, drives were a bit of a mess, some components were dead but the big things were good. Evidently, the ship had taken damage and was heading to the backlines to be repaired. The best Janus could tell from logs is the Ghellar field generator failed in the warp and the ship dropped out of the warp to try and repair it. Evidently, the drop out of the warp did not go well and the ship was left adrift. There were a number of Xeno enhancements to the hull but those could be dealt with. I asked Janus how long it would take to cut this cruiser free. His response after what I am sure was a string of expletives in binary chant was a month. That was fine with me, exploration of this system could be done via landers if need be.

The next item of interest in this system was the first planet in the inner cauldron. It was small, had a hospitable atmosphere and there were structures on it. It was odd that a planet that close to this bright new sun should be hot and dry, possibly with little atmosphere, if any. We took three landers and headed to the structures. They looked of recentish type Imperium build but they were in ruins. Not orbital lance bombardment type but there had been fighting in and around the buildings. We found a communications hub and it looked like people had been in here not too long ago. Some of the sisters and Skitarii said they saw some movement but could not catch what they were seeing. We had seen a few what looked like farming outposts on our way in and a skitarii who was scanning said a vehicle was incoming. I decided to not greet them hostility as this appeared to have been an Imperium colony. The incoming vehicle stopped and someone jumped out and ran into a building. They sat for a time watching us and I waved for them to come closer. The vehicle slowly approached but left their lookout in the building they had run into. I waited for them to get closer and ordered that no one should make any moves till they showed they were hostile. I asked if they were part of the holdings of Awl, and was answered with an affirmative. I said I had information about Lord Awl and if we could talk. We shared rations with these colonists and talked about what had happened to this colony hub. We had looked around and this seemed to have been a thriving colony, small but a good start to a larger city or hive. They told us of raids that had started a few years after their last contact with Lord Captain Awl, not that odd out here in the expanse. When I inquired as to who or what had been raiding them I was concerned, though not surprised, that the torcher Eldar had been raiding. The odd part was the Eldar had come on their land barges, not from orbit. That meant there was a webway gate somewhere on the planet! Prodding for more information they pointed us toward some mountains that had a few valleys and canyons, that is where the Eldar always come from. 

This was a good young system with a lot to offer. It was far afield for an Ambrose holding but if the other two stars proved worth exploiting this would be a good base for those explorations. That is, if we could disable or destroy the webway gate. I asked the colonists if they wished to leave and they said no. Awl had brought them out with the promise of land and that land would remain theirs no matter how the colony grew. If I took this world I would treat it like Drucilla, one major hub, and farming the rest so this could work out well for us all. So there was nothing more to discuss till the torcher Eldar issue was resolved. We spent the evening searching the ruins and talking with some of the colonists not living on the dozen or so ranches. The outcasts wished to leave this place and we agreed to take them, though Pari suggested housing them with the troops to make sure there were no issues. The ranchers had said those outcasts in the ruins were unwanted because of theft or other issues. If nothing else they can be dropped at Footfall to make their way back into the Imperium. I asked if the ranchers to gather representatives from the other ranches so I could talk to them in a few days which they did not think would be an issue. I wanted to know how many wished to remain and who wanted to go. I also was keeping a thought toward making this another holding.

The next morning we took the lander and gun cutter up the canyons and valleys the ranchers had pointed us toward. There were three valleys wide enough to accommodate moving numbers of people so we checked each one. The first had obviously not had anything larger than some animals move through the valley, the second was more open but also showed no signs of a webway gate in the shallow cave at its apex. The final valley had a wide cleared path leading to what looked like a lava tube. When we landed there were signs of the path having been traveled and some old sites of activity. The lava tube was not what it appeared to be, it was too perfect. Moving into the tube it opened into a wider area and there were silvery words or glyphs of some kind in the walls. One of my Dialogus took some time to look over the markings and said they might be a parent language to the Eldar but they were not specifically Eldar. There was also an altar or table with a red stone set into it and surrounded by these marks. After some more study and working under the assumption that this was the webway gate the Dialogus said she felt she could activate this gate. Janus had been doing some calculations on the number of explosives needed to bring this cave down and at least block the gate if not destroy it. When he heard that the Dialogus could open the gate he decided to push explosives into the webway and leave some out here to bring down the cavern. It took the rest of the day to get the explosives from the Bolt, set them up to be pushed in by a servator, and rig up the charges to bring down the cavern. I cleared the area of the gunship and had most of the rest wait on the lander as the Dialogus, Janus, and I went down to open the gate, set off the charges and set the timer for the other charges.

I had never seen a webway gate at all let alone the opening of one. The rock face shimmered a bit and it looked like an overlit hallway. The servator pushed a large flat of explosives through the opening and we could see two figures look at the servator and each other. Janus gave us the warning to run and he waited for a few then set off the timer. The three of us cleared the ramp on the lander as the explosion rocked the valley. I could feel the tendrils of warp energy before the side of the mountain shuddered and slid covering the entrance to the lava tube. Janus thought that would be enough to destroy this gate, if not the Eldar would probably never use it again. We set down again at the colony ruins and were met by a larger group of ranchers. They had seen and felt the explosion and were there to see what had happened. We explained and they were relieved to know the gate was now closed. 

We spent a few days giving medical aid, helping repair equipment, and talking with the leaders of the ranches. None of the ranchers wanted to leave as they had worked hard to establish their holdings. They were amenable to becoming part of the Ambrose holdings and we talked at length about what they could use out here and time table expectations for trade visits. We repaired the vox communications hub in the colony ruins and the ranchers would take shifts manning it and rebuilding some. I was back aboard the Bolt when I got a message from the auspex officer, Yoshi had been observing the warp after the gate was destroyed and he noted a disturbance of warp near one of the asteroid groupings. My belly knotted, one or two of the ranchers said something about ships or shuttles that took people off the planet. I hoped it was not but I feared it was another webway gate. Once on the bridge, I asked Yoshi to keep using his warp tracking talents to watch for ships. I did not know if that was Eldar coming or going but best to prepare for them to be coming.

We moved in the direction of the asteroid cluster scanning and ready to fire. I recalled that Eldar ships tended to not have a huge weapon range, they were just far more agile. That could be an advantage to us, I might be able to give them a good pounding before they got close enough to do anything. We headed toward them and as soon as we got in regular range we fired! It took a few rounds of exchanged fire to finally destroy the ship. As it exploded Yoshi said the gate was opened again and there seemed to be another ship. The Bolt rounded on the asteroid cluster and we could see the open mouth of the gate and a ship heading toward it, they were trying to run. I decided to macro-cannon and lance the ship and send a melta-torpedo through the gate. If I was going to set anything up here I did not want torcher eldar visiting! The ship shuddered but kept moving toward the gate. It was hard to tell if the lance strike finished it or it made it into the gate as the torpedo exploded. Either way, the torpedo exploded and a brief opening to the warp opened and then collapsed. Yoshi said the warp was very disturbed now and we would not be going anywhere for some time. The extra time in the system was fine since we had to free up the dauntless cruiser and do some more in-depth scans of what this system had to offer,

After about a month the dauntless was free and stuffed with cargo. The salvage crews had been wholesale looting the station as they cut the dauntless loose. We ended up with quite the collection of random trade goods and other assorted items. Tons of furs sorted by color, a collection of swords of all sorts, an assortment of weapons, and tech both xeno and human. Some of the finer items were an Aquila lander absolutely decked out in gold and ivory, a stasis cask with sticks in dirt inside it which turned out to be fig tree cuttings, and two large kittens in a stasis cask. The kittens were bigger than the shipboard cats and looked to be the young of much larger cats. I will be keeping the kittens. The Ambrose ships have always had cats aboard and they are well cared for, they serve us well for that care. Somewhere in the past traders of House Ambrose cats were found to be very sensitive to warp issues. We learned that when the cats go hide something was about to happen of a warp incursion type nature. Even the new ships I had acquired in the past few years had cats almost immediately. Crew members had favored animals and if they moved to a new ship those cats went with them. These two large cats tugged at that soft spot I have for felines so they will remain with me.   
Once the dauntless was rigged for towing we moved it to the Svard system. I felt safer leaving it in the Svard system than just floating here. I could send salvage ships or the goliath back for it at my leisure and not worry about someone else finding it. Tech-priests from the Cog could also make the orbit adjustments as needed till I collected it. Once we set it in orbit around the Cog and checking in with the colony to make sure the whispers had definitely stopped I ordered a course to the third of the stars from Awl’s maps.


	15. System Non Grata

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber finishes exploring the former holdings of Rogue Trader Awl and moves on to the Heathen Star area.

**Third of Four in Awl Quartet**

Moving on to the third of the commonly visited systems we hoped for a bit less conflict and more exploration. This system was around a yellow star and only had a few planets in it. There was a small planet in the habitable belt and a large gas giant in the outer cauldron. We decided to start with the gas giant as we were nearest to it and as we approached we noticed several ships in orbit. As we got closer and better scans we could tell the ships were all hulked and dead, long dead. There was also a space station there, also devoid of power and life. Everything was Eldar, not torcher Eldar though. Standing on the bridge looking over the wreckage I felt like I was looking down the barrel of the gun used to kill Rogue Trader Awl. The Eldar had not killed him on a whim and this wreckage field may have been a source of funds but it could also have signed his death warrant.

Approaching we put ourselves in a wide orbit to get better scans. There were some power readings but very minor, probably batteries of some type running out. No life and the planet was incapable of supporting any life we knew of. As we got a better look at the station we noticed what looked like a human-made docking block. It was used to give a human ship a way to dock with complete alien ships, but it looked like it had exploded or something had exploded in it. I was fairly sure I knew who did this and what it cost him for doing it, Rogue Trader Awl. I decided it was worth a look to see if there was anything useful in the dock block. Taking 4 Battle Sisters, a Dialogus to translate Eldar if we decided to look around the station and some Skitarii we docked the Astarte lander with the block as best we could considering its state. The inside of the block was a mess. It looked like it had an explosion of some kind gone off in it. There were no bodies and might have been done after Awl left. We poked around in the space and found nothing much of interest when a movement caught my eye. In front of me about 12-15 feet away was a toppled stack of crates or storage boxes, behind it was a shadow. The nanite enhancement to my eyes let me see ultraviolet and some infrared and the logic processor worked to sort it all as important or not, this purplish shadow was important. As I let my eyes adjust a form came into focus, an Eldar warrior. Glancing around I noticed there were a number of them, all with some kind of cloaking and just watching us. I did not see the value in killing a few dozen Eldar for a station and ships that were probably fairly heavily picked over. I met the Eldar’s gaze that first caught my attention, laid my hand across my heart, bowed and rounded everyone up saying this was pretty picked over and no point in digging further. Back aboard Pari gave me a bit of a questioning look. I shook my head and mouthed later to her. We did not bother scanning or exploring the system. This was an Eldar system, they were watching it, and may very well be the faction of Eldar who killed Awl. I had no intention of ending up melted into my command throne as I had seen on the part of Awl’s ship we found.

When I got a chance I asked Yoshi to mark this system as an Eldar holding, system non grata. When I got to speak with Pari later I told her what I had seen. She agreed it was best to leave it and possibly we could foster a relationship of at least not being shot at with them. Should I run across soul gems I could leave them here rather than risk traveling with them. I know they are Xenos which should mean kill them but if ever there might be a Xeno race worth dealing with the Eldar were the ones, at least some of them. On our way out of the system we fired the stasis cask with the chaos marine in it at the star. I did not want it on the ship any longer either. These things done, we moved on to the last system in the quartet.

**System Novus**

The last of the systems was a young one. This star was into the ultraviolet range and a super hot white star. Planets were still forming up or hot balls of rock solidifying into proper planets so it was hard to tell how many there would end up being but I doubt more than 5 in total over the cauldrons. There was value here though, the warp seemed to be depositing hulks here. It was unclear to Yoshi or the Mechanicum researchers if this eddy in the warp was due to the new star and its gravity or other factors. There were quite a few hulks here of all different races. None had life signs or strong power readings so there was no one to rescue. One of the hulks caught my eye, a human battleship. It was older, somewhere post crusade but not modern, best of all it appeared to be intact. It was far bigger than anything the Bolt could manage in the warp even in a short hop to Svard. There was also a ship that took me a bit of thinking to place with the race it belonged to, it was a Tau ship. It was fairly intact with just minor scorching from weapons fire on the hull. That would be worth recovering also to study. Unfortunately, we were not set to move ships for long hauls so these hulks would have to wait. Scanning the system found some usable mineral deposits but the system was still hot and forming so it might not attract a lot of attention. It would wait till we had a route established for trade.

This would have been when I headed home but since the Artemis had taken the bulk of salvage home our holds were a bit too empty to go home just yet. Over dinner, I asked Yoshi how he felt about doing the jump out to Zayth. He paused and pondered and I was almost afraid I had asked too much. He said he was at the point in calculations that the only thing left to do was do the trip and see how his estimates matched actual travel time. Pari felt sure that supplies were good for the jump even if something bad happened, so it was decided. We would return to the second of the systems in Awl’s former holdings and jump to Zayth and the Heathen Star area.

**Heathen Stars**

There were many reasons to chart the route to the Zayth Naduesh area, the largest being I have promised House Ambrose will bring missionaries out here every 50 yrs. That promise was the cost of rebuilding the Ministorium complex on Drucilla and a really small price for the work. There was also trade to be had out in the Heathen Stars. I know House Saul comes out here and they are also a pious house. Finding a new fast route or loop might be of interest to them, and build an alliance of sorts with that house. There was also Ambrose’s interests to expand. Trade in and out of the Calixis sector was all well and good but as the house had been instrumental in founding the Calixis Sector, so should it be in taming the expanse. Taming the expanse meant finding the paths through the warp, worlds to settle and utilize, and bringing the forces of Xeno and Chaos to heal. The best way to support exploration and expansion was to forge good main trade routes. The hope for this route is that it will include Svard, jump to Zyath and Naduesh, and then end at Druscilla. The end in Druscilla would mean business for House Ambrose, even if it was in fuel, repairs, and restocking of food and water. If I set up a station around Naduesh then that would also be profitable for the house and be a bastion of the Imperium further out in the expanse. 

We decided to make the jump to Zyath from the second of Awl’s former holdings, a system I am naming Izmir. At some point, I want to establish a trade station here as well but it was not as desperately needed as FootFall was not that far away, but this would be a jump point to Zyath so it was good to get a gauge on time from this point and map it from this point. The jump was not terribly long and we arrived in the small system containing Zyath. I had been reviewing journals of my predecessors and found there had been some contact previously on Zyath. The city name Indestructible was the one contacted by an Ambrose Rogue Trader but it had been a long time, about 250-300 yrs. It took several days to transit in and we had time to do some scans of the planet and a ship in orbit. A few days out the ship hailed us asking our business here and that the planet was under the control of one Baron Djanko Scourge, Rogue Trader of House Scourge. This was news to us since last we heard the world of Zyath was still populated with a number of walking cities engaged in trying to destroy each other. I gave a short, curt response along the lines of being there to trade and doubting the control one rogue trader could have over a planet that had been embroiled in war for centuries. When we were in range we voxed the city of Indestructible. They would be willing to meet with us but currently, they were fighting with another city over the fallen carcass of a third city. They could meet with us sooner if we were to assist them in chasing off the competition. 

It might seem odd to pick a random side in this planet of warring cities but we had to start somewhere and this was a known city. The journal entries about this city seemed to cast a favorable light and perhaps they felt the same. Deciding it would be best to just help we dove the atmosphere with the Cassian’s Bolt and took a few shots at the offending opponent. When we did this Baron Scourge made an error in judgment, he took some shots at the Cassian’s Bolt, and judging by the weapons used the Baron had not bothered scanning us. His shots did not do anything but drop the shields and scorch the hull platting in a few spots. When we rose from the atmosphere and returned the favor Baron Scourge did not fair as well. The combination of macro-cannons and then lance strikes took down his shields and started a fire in his macro-cannons. Scanning his ship we found it to be overloaded with armor plating on the hull to the point of being hard for his engines to move the bulk around. He made the poor choice to continue shooting at the Bolt as he moved away. I decided a quick way to end this was a single torpedo, so we maneuvered behind and give him a single torpedo in the aft end. Auspex reported he lost some maneuverability and was moving off as quickly as his wallowing pig of a ship could manage.   
I believe I shocked my crew by opening communications and offering Scourge aid in repairs to his ship, but he never answered. Both Yoshi and Zalavant questioned why offer him aid and not finish him. I did not feel the need to finish him, he had a good black eye and was moving off. I also felt that Scourge was a fellow Rogue Trader, an arrogant prick but a peer. I will not give him another chance but I was aware I needed to establish myself in the pecking order of expanse Rogue Traders. This blow to Scourge established, with him at least, that I would take no bull from anyone thinking I was weak. With that confrontation done we returned to the business of establishing communication with Indestructible.

**The City of Indestructible**

Once we returned to the planet and established contact with the city again we arranged to come down and speak with the elders of the city. I went down with a small guard unit wearing the Lorica. One of the things that had stayed consistent in House Ambrose was the Rogue Trader wore the Lorica, so if my ancestors had been here this might help in recognition being as it was a distinctive armor. Meeting with the elders was a bit tense till a sage finished consulting a large book of the cities history and there was some whispering and pointing to me. Finally, one man spoke and said after consulting the history they had a description of the armor which I was wearing. There was not much in the journals of my ancestors about this city or interactions and after some conversation, they did not seem to have much information either. We were thanked for helping drive the other city off but they did not want to waste time in picking over the carcass of the fallen city. Janus thought it might be a good chance to look for archeotech so we offered to help scavenge which they seemed to appreciate. It took some days to pull the things they wanted and we were permitted to take what we wanted from the rest. Janus found ancient dreadnought armor and macro cannon battery loaders along with some smaller pieces of archeotech.   
We settled to discuss setting up a trade relationship. I was also keeping in mind that this world is one of the ones the Imperium wanted to be brought to heel and trade might be a foot in the door. This world was going to take a different approach than the general military might. We settled on helping them with some landers to use in scavenging and patrols. We left some people with the landers. The people I left were strong in their faith but understood that preaching was not going to be the way to settle this world. Pari and Janus took some note of what the city could use and we let them know we would return, it might be years but we would return. Having done what we could to establish some contact we decided to move on to Vaporius.

**Vaporius**

I had heard stories about Vaporius and in my mind it seemed like it would be like the deserts of Holy Terra with people living around oasises. It was not a long jump to the system and as we transited in to the planet we found little in the way of technology. Scans of the planets revealed a number of cities with hundreds of miles between them. The cities were under glass domes that provided some shade and kept humidity rather than the stifling dry heat of the surrounding deserts. We picked a city and took a couple of landers down with some trade goods. Landing outside the city we used some vehicles to move goods to the town. Not many people seemed to take much note of us or our arrival. Speaking with a guard at the entrance to the dome we were directed to a market area. When I asked about speaking with their priest-king the guard laughed and said if the priest-king wanted to see me he would see me. Setting up we got to take a look at what was possible to obtain here. Beautiful glassware of all kinds was the first thing we took note of, everything from perfume amphoras to large panes of colored glass for use as windows or wall hangings. Finely woven fabrics so light and flowing with beautiful colors was another common good and would sell well in the Calixis sector. Foods, spices, and some metal jewelry could also be had. We brought furs from the Strixis station, food, some coffee, and wine from the house estates and they traded readily with the inhabitants. After a few hours, a messenger flanked by two well-appointed guards approached and said the priest-king would see us, it did not seem to be a request. What we understood about Vaporius was the cities were each ruled by a priest-king who controlled the water in the city. There was no planet-wide unity as far as rulership just independent cities. We followed the messenger and guards to a central building. There was a shaded courtyard with a large pool of water and benches around the pool. We were led into the building behind the pool and into a large receiving hall that was richly appointed. There were low divans around the room with people of this priest-kings court sitting, reclining, and watching these new visitors. I gave a small hand to chest bow and he addressed me, asking why I was here and what I wanted. I said we just wanted to trade and that our people explored the skies looking for worlds to explore. He seemed dismissive and stated he knew about the people of the two-headed bird. First he wanted us to drink, as a welcome custom, and we were presented with beautiful glass goblets of water. I did not see the harm as the society was based around these wells of water. I drank, the water had a high mineral content but not unpleasant and it was refreshing. I felt calm, peaceful but not alarmed. Everyone who accompanied me drank, except Zalavant, he refused. Telepathically he was telling me the water had some sort of psycher effect on it and he would not drink it unless he knew what it was from and what it did. I looked at him and told him to drink, he was adamant and refused. At this point, the priest-king told us we had to leave.

I was a bit peeved and we went back to the market and packed up. We decided to go back to the Bolt and regroup. I understood the reservations Zalavant had but I did not think it was all that serious to drink the water. We decided to pick a different city and try again. Zalavant would not be joining us this time. I did understand but I was looking for a way in for trade and bringing this world to heel. The second city was much the same as the first and we were again brought before the priest-king of this city. We drank and I inquired about trade. This priest-king said he also knew of the two-headed bird people and he was fine with trade but we needed to do something for him first. He waved and some of his guards brought in a man in what I recognized as ministorium robes, a missionary. The man was thrown at my feet and the priest-king said he was tired of these two-headed bird people trying to subvert his kingdom and he wanted them all removed from his lands. I agreed and asked if we could remain for the day and he agreed. I returned to where we set up in the market and a hosplitar tended to the missionary as I spoke with him. The missionary explained the priest-kings were powerful psychers and used the water as a vehicle for their influence. The people were calmed and lulled into complacency via the water. Missionaries had been trying to subvert the kings but were finding it hard. When we packed up that evening we did not go to the Bolt, the missionary showed us where they had an outpost. They had collected some nomads and outcasts from the cities there and they had friendly relationships with some of the tribes that lived in the mountains. I explained that they could leave Vaporius or we could move them into the hills but this camp needed to be moved. They decided to move to the hills, they were tasked with bringing this world under Imperium rule and they would do so or die here trying. We took a few weeks to move them to the hills, supplied them, and promised to take their reports to the Ministorium. I returned to the city and told the priest-king I had removed the missionaries from his lands, at this point, we were given gifts or glass barrels of the psych tainted water, bolts of fine cloth, jewels, and other goods. We took them and returned to the Cassian’s Bolt, there was little more to be done here so we decided to move on to Naduesh.


	16. Naduesh and Lord Captain Sarvus Trask

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amber explores Naduesh and meets another Rogue Trader

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tiny bit of implied sexual contact. Not graphic

**Aguisa**

On the way to Naduesh we stopped at Aguisa. There was no population or life really on Aguisa. All records said it was a tomb world for the humans in this area of the expanse. The warp currents were odd around this area so hopping from Vaporius to Aguisa was shorter than Vaporius to Naduesh. The system was around a dying red star so the planet was cold. Even in space the system was erie quiet, no ships or technology. There were some power signatures on the planet but they were faint. Landing near one of the larger buildings and spread out looking around. I brought the Dialogus with on this trip as it was human history and worth gathering what information we could. The large building had some power and there were walls of names with statues flanking the walls. Standing watching the wall names would light up and the face on the statue would change. It took a little time but we found that a touch of skin on a name would trigger a voice to recite an obituary of the person named and the statue face would change. We could not figure out how to get to a database cogitator so we spent hours touching names and recording information. We explored the smaller tombs and found one that had been struck and broken open. The bodies inside were wrapped in cloth and there were names on beirs bearing bodies. I did not want to disturb them so I left them be. These tombs were as old as House Ambrose. Who were these people? Why was this whole world a tomb? There were literally no buildings here but tombs and memorials. It was interesting and worth studying but it would wait.

**Naduesh**

Naduesh is in a system all by itself. No moon, a few scattered asteroids and on this day 3 ships. Moving toward the planet we did not hail the ships but just scanned, the ships turned out to be Chaos ships! A few days from the planet the ships finally appeared to notice us and started toward us. It was a large older style cruiser and two smaller sword class ships. The large ship came head on to us and the smaller ships swung wide to flank from both sides. Seeing them swing wide I turn and headed right for one of the smaller ships. Once in range I let the little ship I launch a torpedo at the ship and cause severe damage to their sensors leaving them blind. Turning the broadside guns to the larger ship we took several shots at the large ship. It took hours of maneuvering around each other before we disabled the larger cruiser and destroyed the blinded sword class, unfortunately the second small ship got away, jumping to the warp damaged but relatively intact. We took some damage and some crew loss but nothing that a day or two at home would not fix. We assumed an orbit and began scans of the planet. There was a known market area in the shell of one of the hive cities, a mostly deteriorated city but it provided some shelter. There were 8-10 husks of hive cities, some were nothing more than piles of rubble that might have been a city but had collapsed in on themselves. The market was as good a place as any to start. We gathered some goods and loaded up a few landers to head down.   
The tribes on Naduesh were generally friendly and allowed Imperium ships to gather food and water to resupply for the long jumps back toward FootFall and the Calixis Sector. They also acted as guides into the abandoned hive cities for Rogue Traders and Mechanicum Exploritors. I was not worried about hostilities, though I was worried there would be no one there after the chaos ships had been here. We landed near the market city and moved to the open area under the husk of the ancient city. The area was set up like a market but in a bit of disarray. Some tables were thrown over and I caught sight of a few people hiding in the husk and around large crates and boxes. Motioning for the guards to lower their weapons I removed my helm and I just stood, waiting. After a few moments a man stepped from behind a crate while his companions whispered at him. We stood staring and I finally spoke, ‘I am Amber Elaine Ambrose, I am an Imperium citizen and mean no harm to any of you.’ The man came forward, more of his companions crept forward to watch, and he asked ‘you take no people’. I assured him I was not here for slaves, but to trade. After a few moments the tribe's people came out and greeted my crew and we settled into conversation.   
Trade with these people was easy. We resupplied and even arranged a foray into

one of the hive city ruins. These people were the descendants of inhabitants of the people of the hive cities. Their names gave away their ties to Holy Terra and they spoke a piecemeal version of low gothic. They were friendly and lived in small bands that moved from place to place, except this band. They stayed here in this hive city husk and helped Imperium ships as they came to resupply. 

We explored one of the ruins with a rather talkative young tribesman. He told stories of the eight points, the forces of chaos, and other Imperium forces. He pointed out items the red robes had looked at and studied, a few places where people lived in the hulk, and his life here. We came to a shaft in the ruins that had been a lift of some sort. The lift was long broken and it was not possible to climb the shaft so Zalavant flew up the shaft to the lift platform. On the platform were torpedoes, long since past functioning but there were a number of cases with them. Zalavant brought one of the cases down to inspect. There were a number of cases up there of various sizes but we started with this one. We opened it and there were long rods in it. Janus hurriedly scanned and was excited, they were the arming pins for the torpedoes. I was not sure how a pin could be so valuable till Janus explained they had tech in them that could unlock a number of archeotech weapons. Zalavant flew up and brought down the other cases, all in all we got 6 archeotech lasrifle and a couple of webbers along with the arming pins. I gave our guide one of the lasrifles as payment for his services. We got back to the market area and were met by another lander from the Bolt, there was a large warp disturbance on the edge of the system, unclear what it was. Bidding the tribesmen farewell for the moment we headed back to the Bolt to prepare. I had thought it possible the small sword class might go for help but I thought that would have been months off. Stepping onto the bridge I looked at the scans of the disturbance. Yoshi also took a look and he was not sure if it was a storm or a ship coming out of the warp, but he did say if it was a ship it was large or a number of them. All we could do was wait, and watch.

It felt like days of watching till two large masses emerged from the hole in the warp. Scans were confusing, it looked like a hulk but it was not drifting. It was moving, burning hard and fast out of the tear in the warp toward the planet. I laid a hand on the auspex officers shoulder as he tried to sort what he was seeing. I looked to Yoshi who was standing behind the command throne and he shrugged, it did not feel warp tainted but the storm it caused was huge and violent. After pacing the bridge for hours the communications officer said he was getting a message and opened the channel to the bridge speakers. ‘This is Lord Captain Sarvus Trask of the Imperium. Identify yourself.’

Trask was a name I had heard, a Rogue Trader rebuilding and ailing house. Not an arrogant sot but cocky, though from stories the cocky was well earned. I responded ‘This is Shah Emiar Amber Elaine Ambrose, Rogue Trader of House Ambrose. Welcome out of hell.’ Messages took time to relay so we just had to wait. And from what Yoshi was looking at, it would be a long wait. What ever had happened to put Lord Captain Trask here had stirred up a hell of a storm in the warp. It would be days before we could go anywhere. I stood the ship down and we waited for Trask to transit into orbit. 

**Lord Captain Sarvus Trask**

It took 6 days for Lord Captain Trask to fall into an orbit with his two ships. Each ship had another ship bound to it, salvage. Once he was settled in orbit he messaged asking permission to come aboard which I granted. I met him in the landing bay with my four sister bodyguards. Lord Captain Trask exited his lander with a guard and stopped short as he looked around for this Shah Emiar Ambrose. I had decided to dress non-militant, in the house colors of green and white. ‘Welcome aboard the Cassian’s Bolt Lord Captain Trask’. He stood staring a few moments and then strode up to me and offered his hand. I gripped his forearm above the wrist in a fighter's handshake. ‘Shah Emiar I presume’ as he returned the handshake, ‘I should get lost more often, pretty faces out here.’ 

After the pleasantries, we retired to dinner. I had laid a feast for this fellow Rogue Trader and we enjoyed swapping stories, drinking far too much, and hearing how they got here. Trask had been scavenging at the Processional of the Damned and was trying to head in the direction of FootFall when they hit a warp anomaly and ended up making the spectacular entrance here at Naduesh. His ships had some damage and were shaken up but seemed to be intact. I offered our assistance in repairs as we were now stuck here for a time due to the warp storm which he gratefully accepted.

Trask is a colorful man. Not angry or flustered about the large sidestep in the warp in the wrong direction, he seemed amused by it. His command retinue and guard were also colorful, an ancient sage, and X Imperium Militant officer as his XO. Yoshi inquired what house provided his navigators and was surprised to hear Trask used Nostromo navigators. I had heard something of House Nostromo, some nonsense about a curse but extremely skilled. He was headed back into the Calixis Sector with a couple of ships, one to add to his fleet and the other to buy time in the shipyards at the lathes. I offered my own yard if he felt he was getting a raw deal at the lathes and he said he would remember that. 

We spent 5 weeks waiting out the warp storm. After 2 weeks I gave some limited leave between ships and the planet. Trask thought, and I agreed, it would do both crews some good.

**Personal Reflections on Trask**

5 weeks is a long time sitting semi-idle. After a few weeks, I was getting a little stir crazy. I approved Janus’s request to do some more delving into the hive cities. I went with for a couple of them and others Yoshi went, always with a number of Skitarii guards. While waiting we scouted out a place to put an outpost as ground support for the trade station I had planned. Speaking with various tribes all seemed amicable to having the outpost as long as they were not blocked from food or water and could visit the outpost. Since the point was to expose the natives to the Imperium they were of course welcome in the outpost. Other than these little matters I had a lot of time to kill.

Lord Captain Trask returned the favor and had my command retinue aboard his ship for dinner. It was a bit more boisterous at his table. Some of his guards are quite good singers, even while intoxicated. He had heard from some of my crew that I sang and tried to prod me to join. I had to explain later the most my crew had heard me sing was with some of the Battle Sisters for services, not quite the same. Sarvus and I spent a number of evenings discussing the trials of leading a Rogue Trader house, rebuilding and ships. I enjoy his company and find him lively and personable. There was no posturing or power plays and I very much appreciated that.

One evening about midway through our third week of waiting he invited me to his ship for a bit of sport. He had an arena on his ship and used it to settle matters on occasion between the crew. On this evening it was a fight between two lower deckmen over a woman, and two midshipmen in some dispute over honor or an insult. I had never thought these arenas were a good idea but his crew seemed to enjoy things. There were displays of skills, military and not, matches between some of my crew and his just for fun, and toward the end of the evening, his crew and some of mine were asking for a captain's duel. We both agreed and were handed just simple swords and the choice of a small fist shield or a parrying dagger. I have to say my sword skills are lacking. I trained with a power sword at the abbey but it was not a favored weapon of mine, so I lost by a hit. I have to admit it was good amusement, and we had a few more duels to the delight of both crews. After the first duel, we retired to his quarters for a consolatory drink. I realized sitting there with him it was the first time I had been alone with him, or really any man. Pari usually had one of her assassins around, or my 4 Sister guard was with me. The conversation drifted from safe topics like crew and ship to my life at the abbey, his life rebuilding alone after the family had all but destroyed the house. He asked if I had a consort or husband and I told him I did not and had no idea what I would want in one. He felt similar. This life could be tough to find someone and even harder to keep them. I felt at ease around Sarvus Trask, there were no expectations on how I should behave. Lately, I had been finding straddling the worlds between Battle Sister and Rogue Trader becoming more and more tricky, so a chance to just be Amber was refreshing. I found myself spending most evenings in his company, either on the Bolt, his ship or on occasion on Naduesh. 

One of these evenings was aboard the Bolt. He had wanted to see the arboretum. None of his ships had them but after learning they helped extend food supplies he was interested in how that all worked. We finished a tour and were sitting in a corner of the arboretum that was reserved for my use. This corner had a number of benches under arbors of deep red roses. The red roses were my nod to the Order of the Bloody Rose, the order I would have sword oaths to. I had sat here to just enjoy the intoxicating scent of the roses and some of the other more decorative flowers in this space. I closed my eyes and just took deep breaths of the perfumed air. I felt his weight on the bench beside me when he sat and smiled at the lack of need to fill the silence. I had come to appreciate and expect some quiet time just being in his company. I did not expect his fingers on my cheek, or his thumb to gently trace over my lips. I am not sure if it was the wine we had shared sitting here or just chemistry or both, but I asked ‘Is there something you want?’ There was definitely something he wanted. There are sometimes issues with augmentations, currently, I was keenly aware of one. My augmented eyes picked up his pulse racing a bit and a flush of his face even though no one else would have noticed. He very candidly said quietly ‘I either need to get up off this bench and retire to my own ship or taste your intoxicating lips’. In a bit of jest, I replied something along the lines of needing to do what he must, and he did.

When his lips parted from mine he asked if he could remain here. Jesting some I looked around the quiet corner of the gardens and said we could remain in the gardens as long as he liked. He groaned and almost growled ‘that is not what I mean and you know it’. Smiling, I stood and nodded for him to follow. In this corner of the arboretum, there was a passage that led to the Rogue Traders private rooms, my bedroom, and study.

Needless to say the next morning Pari roused us both with a message that his Senechal had been wondering where he was. We spent several more nights over the next weeks in each other's respective beds and enjoyed the 5-week distraction.

Neither of us was expecting much more of this than the pleasant distraction. So when the warp storms finally subsided and we could go our respective ways we did so with the understanding that this was for our amusement. Yoshi and Trask’s navigator shared some basics on how to find the Caffa system and I gave him a few code pieces for speaking via astropath, mainly for if we need help or just seeing where each other were. While the amusement was good, a trusted friend was even better. We went our ways and Lord Captain Trask said he might have to come to see about this shipyard of mine.

**Onward Home**

  
Yoshi needed a little time to prepare his navigators for the long jump from Naduesh to Caffa, 180 days approximately in the warp. When he was ready we left for home. There were a few issues but nothing overly complex or frightening. We arrived home a bit earlier than expected, and it was good to see Drusilla again. Two of the bastion system defence ships were immediately at the Bolt’s side and escorting us in to dock with the trade station. I noted the Artemis was here with the Calendrius and the Psycher Citadel. Once docked Immone was there with my children who needed to tell me everything that had happened since the moment I left until now. It was very good to be home again. It took a week or so to go through the business that had occurred in my absence but I was very pleased with the progress. I had a transport to dedicate to the Amber road route. Istander Sara had sent a message to Lath Hadd and the Goliath I requested should be on its way to Caffa. The Orphius and the Mechanicum Goliath had gone to Svard to retrieve the bastion cruiser, and Magos Randice Lisa had much to share with me about discoveries, including a dragon ship that crashed in the polar ice cap here on Drucilla. There was much to sort through and investigate but first and foremost I wanted to spend some time with my children and off the Bolt.


	17. Dragon Boats and Trade Stations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Amber Road gets its anchor points and so a trade route for House Ambrose is set in motion.

**Druscilla**

Settled home again I had issues to manage. First was what was this Dragon Boat buried in the ice toward the pole. Magos Randice Lisa relayed that it was found as teams were scouting for the spacing of terraforming stations. It was buried deep in the ice and had been shoved against the side of a mountain, speaking to how long it had been there. I was not keen on having an Eldar Dragon Boat on Druscilla and felt we needed to excavate it and see about getting it off the planet. It took some work between digging and melting our way down to it, and once there we needed to do some more melting to get into the ship. Things got interesting once inside this ancient ship. There were a few bodies, obviously, Eldar, that had injuries like broken bones, and one had a smashed skull typical of a high-velocity impact. Things got complicated when we got toward the heart of the ship. 

There was a central chamber in the ship that held what looked to be a basin surrounded by statues. The Dialogous with me recognized a few as Eldar gods. Yoshi and Zalavant examined the gems stuck to the bases of the statues and in the basin, some were psychoactive. This was not what I wanted to find. This ship, even in this state, would be of great value to the Eldar, which meant I really did not want it to stay here. Janus and Randice Lisa were scanning and noted the wall behind the largest figure had a slot in it, about the width and shape of a blade. They also seemed to be of the opinion, judging by the outside dimensions, there should be more to this chamber. Looking around Zalavant noticed the sword held by one of the statues was removable, and before anyone could stop him he slid it into the slot. There was a humm and then a panel in the wall slid aside and revealed a short passage that ended in a screening wall that blocked the view into a small round chamber. In the chamber was a sarcophagus.

We all stood staring for what felt like days. The sarcophagus lid had a figure laying, arms at its chest clasping a sword. The eyes were two pale glowing blue stones that both Yoshi and Zalavant did not like the feel of, and warned against opening the tomb. I had to know what was here. Eldar had some abilities in precognition and now that this ship had been seen and revealed they may know about it. Janus offered two heavy servators to lift the lid while we waited outside away from the ship. It took time to get them in the ship and maneuvered into position to be able to lift the lid. A servo skull gave us a view of the servators lifting. It took some effort even for the heavy servators but they lifted the lid, there was a bright flash and the view was gone and smoke wisped from the ship. Janus sent a second servo skull in and found the two heavy servators and the other skull shorted out. The bluestone eyes were also no longer glowing.

It took another day and a half to get the hulked servators out and new ones sent in. Everyone was on edge. We were not sure if the glowing eyes had been a single trap or if this would keep happening, but we had to try again. The two servators again positioned to lift the lid. Slowly they lifted the lid and nothing happened. A servo skull floated closer to get a view inside. I am not sure who did it but there was a gasp. I turned and looked at Pari and told her to send the Orphieus to Gloriana, I needed Inquisitor Orchiel.

It took two weeks for the Orphieus to go and the Actaeon to return with the Inquisitor. I had a detachment of Sisters guard the wreck, no one was allowed near it and if anything made a move out of it the Sisters were to kill it, with prejudice. The Inquisitor met me at the wreck and she and I went back into the little chamber with a few Battle Sisters. The lid was again lifted off and Orchiel moved in to examine the contents.

In the sarcophagus was a body, almost a mirror of the relief on the lid. The biggest difference was the sword. The one on the lid was stone like the rest of the tomb. The one on the body was a pale bluish crystal blade. I did not realize I had been holding my breath till Orchiel let out a long sigh and straightened, turning to face me. ‘You do not want this here’ it was not a question. I answered that I did not want the tomb or the ship here. She motioned for the servators to lower the lid and she and I discussed what to do with this. She wanted to take it back into the Calixis Sector to be stored in the vaults of the Inquisition. I agreed and asked if she wanted the body or just the sword. She decided the whole sarcophagus needed to go and then explained what she thought it might be. It could be an Eldar WitchBlade or one of the 99 swords made for one of the Eldar gods, neither was something the Eldar would want in the hands of the Imperium. There was also the small issue of the precognition of the Eldar, they might know now the sword is here. This did not please me, nor did the next thing Orchiel said. This was the kind of item the Eldar would send a fleet after, either of the types of blades or a Tear of Ishia. I do not know if I gasped or she felt the tension shoot through me like lightning. She looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. All I could think to do was whisper ‘I have a Tear’. She rubbed her face and simply said she would need a stasis cask.

Within hours the sarcophagus was removed and loaded into a hulking stasis cask. The Tear was also handed over to her. She requested the Actaeon take her back into the Calixis Sector as fast as it could, to which I wholeheartedly agreed. I arranged with Magos Randice Lisa the dismantling of this ship. She could send it into the Lathes or into a star but it was NOT staying here and no part of it would be studied here. She appeared to understand there was no negotiating on this point and her researchers set to work crating up the Dragon Boat to be shipped back into the Lathes.

There was no time to dwell on this finding as I had to gather the pieces I needed to set up the trade station at Naduesh. The Goliath I had requested was bringing out the orbital trade station and we had supplies to gather here on Druscilla. A drop temple, a habblock, trade goods, a couple of system defence ships needed to be stored aboard various ships to take out with us. The Mechanicum Goliath and one of their cruisers would be going with also. I intended to stop at Svard and pick up fuel, then hope to Izmir and get a better scan and the status of the colony structures left there. While the Izmir scans were going on I would take my Goliath out to retrieve the battle cruiser, Victory at Voss. There was plenty to keep me busy and my mind off the Dragon boat.

This trip would also be my daughters first with me. It was time for her to get a taste and start learning the trade. Immune thought her a little young but I insisted. My siblings and I started traveling with my father when we were 10 or 11 and I would do the same. Ship life was different from planet side, which would take time to adjust to as well as a shift in her schooling. She wanted the rooms that had been her aunts, so I settled her into her space and routine. Serene would be her shadow and answer questions and seeing to her safety. I would have her by my side as much as possible so she could see it was not all about ‘killing xenos and glorious battles’. Huran was not pleased to be staying on Druscilla. He pouted for days before we left but Immone finally distracted him with him needing to be a good big brother to my next heir who was due sometime while I was gone. I helped by telling him I needed him to guard home to which he said he would be fierce like an Astarte! I also told him he needed to study hard because when I got back they would both be with me learning the trade.

As a child I had not always traveled with my father, none of us did. Father would take us on some runs, usually long involved ones, so we could observe. We would come home with stories and our learning would take a more focused form involving what we had observed. As we got older he would let us help decide how to tackle issues or where to go next. Nuria and Huran got more time to do those kinds of trips. William and I still learned the trade but I knew when I was 14 I would be going to the Abbey on Scintilla. My learning included Sororitas History and some physical training. William spent time with the Istander of the colony learning how to govern a colony, report to my father the important goings on, and shape the growth of Druscilla. I would follow this model with my children, with one exception. My children would not be slated for roles. I understand now that my father had to send off one of his children that could, if the worst happened, step into the Rogue Trader role with little or no guidance. I was that child for him. William could not have done what I have over the last 10 or so years. William was a good leader but he was not a fighter. He did well in structure, there was no structure to the expanse. I would let my children choose but I would have to ask one to do as I did. There are times I wish I had come out here to find Huran or Nuria alive. I wish I could have gone back to the abbey, though even in the Sororitas there were bigger plans for me than being a simple Battle Sister. Sitting going over the fleet going out to Naduesh I wonder if father would be proud of how far I had come in such a short time.

**The Amber Road**

There was a trade route on ancient Holy Terra called the Amber Road. It ran from the Baltic Sea down through what had been a country called Russia and into the Middle East. Amber and jet made its way down to bustling markets in Baghdad, markets filled with spices, hammered jewelry, and silk from the Far East. Pari had dropped a history text on my desk open to a map of the route. Days long before space ships the size of countries like we now run trade routes. Days of horses and long days riding across vast lands. This is how this route I was forging came to its name, The Amber Road. It ran from Druscilla to FootFall, then to Awl’s Quartet of Svard, Izmir, and Delta. Zyath was the next stop, then Naduesh which is where I would be putting the orbital trade station. Then we would take the long jump from Naduesh back to Druscilla where there was another orbital trade station. At some point, I would add an orbital at Izmir but for right now Druscilla and Naduesh would be the stops for fuel and resupply on the Amber Road. The Amber Road on Holy Terra had been the longest continuously running trade route in history, may The Emperor, by his Light, see fit to grant as long life to my own Amber Road.

The jumps to FootFall and then Svard were smooth and uneventful. Coming into Svard though we found company, two Orc raiders. When we made contact with Svard they knew about them and had pulled back into the swirling gas clouds which the Orcs seemed to avoid. I ordered the salvage ships and transports to hang back while the Mechanicum Cruiser and the Cassian’s Bolt took care of the two Orc ships. We charged forward and the Orcs started the fight with torpedoes. Orcs were not great shots but they had the ability to just keep making torpedoes, so ending the fight quickly was for the best. I swung the bolt wide and the Mechanicum cruiser swung wide on the other side. I was hoping to get them stuck in between us and just destroy them. It took a little time to get in close enough to make it hard for them to dodge the Bolt’s torpedoes but when I got a shot one ship was rocked hard. I believe we knocked out their sensors but it is so hard to tell with Orc ships, they look like they should not even fly so scanners have a hard time identifying systems. The cruiser came in and disabled the same ship, so we turned on the next one. This captain was a bit more aggressive or smart because they got close and started shooting Orcs at the Bolt. Orcs are odd creatures, they are only happy if they are fighting and they will fight anyone. They also do not seem to care about danger. Launching themselves off their ship at an enemy is just routine. I am not sure my auspex officer was ready for that mess, he looked at me with some disbelief and said they were shooting bodies at us. I had never seen this but heard plenty of stories from the senior Battle Sisters at the abbey. Orcs would crawl all over ships and find a way in even if it meant cutting one. I shook my head and ordered the crew to be ready to repel boarders. It took a few more volleys but we hit the drives of the second ship which caused them both to explode. Scanning around the system we found no more Orc ships so we moved into the system to Svard.

Once in orbit, we shuttled down and checked in with the council. Things had been recovering slowly but steadily. There had been no more whispers and they were reclaiming more shuttles and assets in the system. Scouting parties had been checking the hollowed asteroids for survivors, shuttles, and supplies but only found shuttles and supplies. The arboretum in the hollowed asteroid was serving them well and helped perk up the survivors. Young Master Awl was settling into learning how to be a leader quite well and they were pleased I had returned. I informed them trade should be fairly regular now and if I could facilitate anything just to let the trade ship captain know. We filled the tanks for the Naduesh station and moved on to Izmir.

The system of Izmir was quiet and it took a little time to make contact with the colony. Once we did and I set them to scanning I took my Goliath off to Delta to get the battlecruiser, Victory at Voss. Delta was also quiet so we set immediately to scanning to locate the battlecruiser and the Tao ship we had seen previously. It took two weeks to get the cruiser secured to the Goliath for towing and Decius Fenger, my arch militant, asked to go scavenging on the Tao ship. I gave him leave to do so, along with any human ships he thought were safe enough to poke around in. Once the battlecruiser was secure we headed back to Izmir to rejoin the rest of the fleet.

I was pleased to hear the colony structures were fairly intact and would need some work but not a complete rebuild. The ranchers were pleased we would be building there and put in some requests for equipment and supplies they could use. Since the system was quiet I took Nuria down to look around and decide what we needed. Looking around at what was there I sat down with her near what seemed to have been a central square around a statue of the God Emperor. It was lesson time, I asked her what would be the first important things we needed here. She looked at the data slate she had been making notes on and squinted up at me looking thoughtfully, ‘people, not much of a trade place with no people’. I had to laugh, not the answer I had been looking for but she was correct. I tended to think of people as being a given but she was learning and in learning taught me where I might have forgotten basic steps or steps I take for granted. She went on to list a temple as there was not one at all and vehicles so the colonists and ranchers could transport goods, like on Druscilla. I was pleased, she was thinking and observing which was key. She also thought they needed a zoo, and I told her that might come later for them. 

Zayth was the next jump we had to make. The trip was smooth and once in orbit we made contact with the city of Indestructible. While on Druscilla I had pulled missionaries from Order Sabine, they worked in a more covert quiet manner, which I thought would better suit the long game here. We traded for more macro cannon loaders and left more landers, missionaries disguised as technicians for the landers, and items requested as trade items. I spent some time talking with the leadership as they were asking me to help attack other cities. I kept things neutral and tried to encourage them to form some alliances with a few other cities. They did not seem receptive so I will let it stew with them for a time and let the Sabine Missionaries do their work.

The next jump we did was to Aguisa. It was faster to do this little hop then go directly to Naduesh. Once in the system auspex picked up a smaller ship in orbit. Being curious the Bolt moved in to see who it was. It turned out to be one of Trade Admiral Saul’s ships, they were here with Missionaries of sorts. Hailing the captain I asked if there was anything we could assist with, to which they replied they were not in need. I shared the information about the trade station at Naduesh and if they needed anything to feel free to come and take advantage as we would be there for some time. The captain thanked us and we went on our way.

Next was the long stop at Naduesh. It would be approximately 6 months setting up the ground support and the orbiting trade base. The Mechanicum Goliath got to work building the trade station and the cruiser and system defence ships took up a patrol. I went down to see about setting up the drop temple and hab block. When we touched down on the surface there was a different tribe at the spot we had chosen for our ground base. They had a large tracked mining or excavation vehicle It had seen much better days but it still moved on its own and some systems worked. We traded with them, talked about what we were doing and they seemed curious but not concerned. They asked the same thing other tribes had, that they not be blocked from water and such. We assured them they were welcome to the water and to trade. Janus wanted to explore the hive city we were building in the shadow of so we did a little exploring. There was an opening about 30 meters up the side of the city that we managed to get into. It opened into a storeroom with a door that was not powered. It took Janus a few hours but he got it powered and reprogrammed and we did some poking down a long corridor of small store rooms. Mostly looked like it had been perishable stores that had long since perished, but it was a way in for later exploration.

The next project in this system was the two chaos ships I had let drift. The smaller Infidel class ship had broken apart so there was nothing to really salvage. The larger ship was still drifting but as we approached we could tell it had been salvaged heavily. The hull was peeled back in a few places and components removed. We decided to take a look anyway and see if there was anything of use to be salvaged in armories or information from the cogitators. It took some work to get through parts of the ship but the command tower looked fairly intact so that became our target. The lifts were of course not working so it was a climb. We did not find a lot till we got to the level with the entrance to the navigators pod and quarters. The Sisters and I were doing the loop around while Yoshi and some Skitarii looked for maps, though he was not sure he wanted them even if they were there. We were almost back around to the doorway when we heard a muffled cry or yelp. Pushing into the pod we found Yoshi with a horrified look on his face and a Skitarii moving to a wall of cube shaped shelves. I was trying to figure out what the cry yas and then one of the Skitarii held up a skull he had removed from the shelves.

The shelves were stacked with skulls. Each skull had a name plate and swirling patterns carved into the bone. I understood now the look on my navigators face and the cry. Each skull was a navigator, from various houses, chaos and Imperium. Yoshi took a few moments to compose himself and then examined the skull the Skitarii handed him, but the look of horror returned. Turning to hand it to me he said quietly ‘there is a soul still attached to it’. I am not a psyker but I could feel a presence with the weight of the skull in my hands. I did not know why this was done and I really did not care. I reflected for a moment and then moved to put the skull back in its place. Looking over the shelves I could feel then twinges at the nap of my neck that I was associating with our encounters with Chaos and the Unclean ones. Looking to one of the Sisters I nodded and then took a knee, the thing I could think to do was exorcise these skulls and release the souls and make them useless. I began my prayers and the Sisters took up a position of guard around me. After a few moments a chilling, howling echoed through the command decks. The twinges turned to a shudder down my spine but I continued the prayers. I could feel the deck plates shuddering as something pounded the bulkheads somewhere. I could also feel the souls trapped within the skulls tearing free of whatever was keeping them bound. I recall shouting, bolter fire and heavy vibrations in the deck plates under my knee. The Sisters and Yoshi had to fill me in later as the prayers and effort took most of my attention. I was almost finished when I felt a flare of the Emperors Light beside me, which I later found was a Sister healing from a massive strike from a Hell Brute, an Astarte in Dreadnaught warframe turn to Chaos. As I finished the release of the skulls I stood, turned and drew the Roar of Courage and faced this abomination of Chaos. A number of rounds had been put into this creature and it just roared its fury at us. I gave the Brute a burst of blessed rounds and it screamed its last and collapsed on the deck. As the scream faded I could hear more fighting and then people coming our way. It was another group of Sisters, Snow and Fenger coming down from the bridge. The prayers of exorcism had freed a few creatures they had tethered here. Snow, Fenger, and the Sisters had killed a few lesser demons and creatures on the bridge and came to see if we were alright. We regrouped and followed the path of destruction the Hell Brute had wrought on its way out of wherever it had been imprisoned. It led back to a set of rooms that looked like living quarters and lab. Looking around I could tell this was some warp sorcerer's den and workshop. Thick gold chains with runes inscribed on them hung from the overhead and wall, now shattered from the Brute ripping free. There were some other crates that things had burst from against a wall, probably the creatures they fought on the bridge. The lab bench had a number of relics that belong to the God Emperor, desecrated and defiled. A few still faintly glowed with the Emperor’s light, probably answering to the prayers we had uttered. There was also a casket. The casket was from a Mortifier. Mortifiers were Penitent Engines for Battle Sisters. It did not happen often but sometimes a Sister failed her duties and flees her responsibilities, if she is caught she is confined to a Mortifier. Both Mortifiers and Penitent Engines inflict agony, suffering and both mental and physical pain on the being placed into them. The only relief they receive is to kill at the command of a Sister Superia or Commander. I had 12 Penitent Engines on the parade way of the Bolt, they held the 12 most responsible for the death of my family. This casket had been defiled on the outside with chaos symbols carved into the wood. I laid my hand on it and it shook and there was scrabbling from within it. Without a thought, I again began the prayers of exorcism. The whole casket fought the glow and the most heart wrenching scream came from within it. The scream echoed through the command tower and through everyone’s souls. It was a sound of suffering and release. When I finished it was so still and quiet. I was very glad for the helm of my armor because I could feel the tears run down my cheeks. I asked that a couple of stasis casks be brought so this Sister could go home. If the Abbey would not see to her I would on Druscilla. The relics were also collected up and stored. I would have the Reliquers cleanse them for the Ministorium complex on Druscilla. They could also tell me if they belong elsewhere. Yoshi and one of the Dialogous looked over some art pieces and requested they be taken also, along with a stained glass panel of the God Emperor of Mankind. It all went in stasis casks. The cask holding the Sister still in the casket was taken to the Chapel and laid in state there. Four Sisters were always with her as honor guard. I did not even have to ask and I also took my turn. When I stood my watch I was a bit surprised to see my daughter there also. The first few times she sat at the back of the Chapel with Serene. She looked a little grave and she whispered to Serene and considered Serene’s replies with deep thought. When I stood the watch I did so in my Sororitas armor, not the Lorica. The crew came and paid their respects, some left red roses. I did not know if this Sister was of the Blood Rose but it was still touching. Honestly, I did not know if it was a Sister. Serene could check genetics but she needed access to the genetic databases which we did not have out here. We had not even opened the casket, just let her remain. Serene had privately explained there was a bit of ceremony for removing a Sister from a Mortifier casket. If her penance was served she would be removed, put in her armor, and interred with all the honors a fallen Sister would receive. If not, the casket would be burned without opening it, her name stricken from records, forgotten. Usually, a Cannoness knew who was in a casket but that might not be the case here, so Serene wanted to wait to see what the abbey wanted to do.

The rest of the time setting up was uneventful. We stayed and the Mechanicum goliath built two more system defense ships. All in all, I left the Mechanicum cruiser and four system defence ships. Trade Admiral Saul’s ship did show up after a few months for supplies and I invited them, and missionaries aboard the Bolt. The group the Trade Admiral’s captain was escorting was not missionaries per se, they were a group from a cult I had heard some things about, Origonists They believed the God Emperor had created the universe about 10,000 years ago and always been worshiped. They were at Aguisa trying to find proof of their beliefs. They were polite enough and seemed pleased the Bolt was a pious ship, though they did comment on the Temple to the Omnisia. I brushed it off as the price of having so many Magos aboard keeping the Cassian’s Bolt functioning. The captain and I had a few private words and he rolled his eyes at a lot of their rhetoric. It was money, and support to aid Saul’s endeavors out here which I completely understood, so I did not give him too much grief about the ridiculous group. I invited Saul and his captains to use the trade station as needed and shared the planned jump route from Naduesh to Druscilla. He thanked me and would let the Trade Admiral know of the station and route.

The only thing left was the jump home. I was looking forward to being home again. The whole crew seemed a bit withdrawn and jumpy on the trip home. I noted a number of them in prayer on my honor guard watches. Even the Temple of the Omnisia seemed still and quiet. There is something about seeing Battle Sisters or Astarte laid low to the forces of Chaos. This was one Battle Sister but when I thought about it, the response had been similar when we were clearing the Orpheus. Seeing Astarte armor pierced through was chilling. When we arrived in Caffa and were hailed by system defense ships there was a sigh of relief on the bridge. I handed command to my executive officer and retired to my quarters. Nuria was waiting for me. She had an armload of red roses and wanted to go to the chapel. Entering the chapel she went up the main aisle and then turned to the nave dedicated to the recent late Rogue Trader. There were five ledges with small plaques with their names: Lord Captain Kahlid Omar Ambrose, Lady Ahida Fehmeeda bint Koffa Ambrose, Huran Milan Ambrose, Nuria Ashida Ambrose, William Majid Ambrose. She left a rose on each ledge then laid the rest on the stasis cask. I vaguely recall Pari escorting us both back to my quarters, tears wetting both our cheeks. 


	18. The Politics of Courting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You can get what you want and need, you just have to dance the right steps and court the right people as Amber finds out.
> 
> WARNING: some sexual content toward the end. No acts just reference

**Druscilla**

It was always good to be home, not always restful but good nonetheless. There had been a few hiccups in improvements to the colony, namely a fire in a communication hub. So upon my return home, they were just finishing up the improvements rather than having them long done. A few people were hurt, no major destruction and a bit of a lecture from me on doing things slow and steady were preferable to fast and haphazard. The project was done and we had the growing pain of trying to impress rather than being slow and steady. After a few weeks home I hosted a dinner gathering for the colony and farm leaders. I wanted to reward and commend the work being done and remind them Ambrose was not about bigger, better, faster. Ambrose grew steady and strong over time, we were a 10 millennia old Rogue Trader house. That longevity is built on slow, steady, planned work. It is built on doing things right and not racing other houses. In going through journals of my predecessors I found names of other rogue trader houses that are long gone, peers for a time but did not have the staying power to last. I understood things were moving at a good clip right now, but we have a lot of help putting us back to where we had been 15 yr previous. There were many projects going into motion but there would be long periods of slow and steady growth. I reminded them that just because I asked for things to be done I was not open to being asked for more support, supplies, or compromise. There were questions, some seemed concerned I was displeased. I assured them all I was pleased and heartened to see such dedicated work, but safe was preferable to fast. The rest of the evening was lighter and it was a pleasure to be home among Ambrose people.

Life for some months was dull, which was restful. Nuria had her experiences with me to direct her studies and Huran wanted to know everything that happened. I got to spend time with my second daughter Adaline Karim, who by the time I returned was almost three yrs old! Warp travel was odd in that respect. I felt like we had been gone months but it had been years. Immone and I discussed another child but she wanted a little time, getting Huran and Nuria more firmly into their real training as leaders before adding a fourth. She wanted one of the Dialogus to remain and help teach them history and creed which I was more than happy to do. Dialogus Juna volunteered to remain, space travel had become uncomfortable for her in her advancing years and she found she was preferring having sold ground beneath her feet. She would curate libraries for my estate here and help in the education of my children.

There was much to organize before a trip into the Calixis Sector which mainly consisted of waiting. Waiting for the large xeno ship to be pulled from the Gloriana wreckage field. Waiting for the Victory at Voss to be cleaned up, a Gellar field, and Miloslav drives installed. Waiting to speak with the Imperial Navy about the station. I did get to finally inspect the Navy station which had formally been the psyker citadel from Sviard. Merilyn Snow accompanied me on the inspection at her own request. I think she had been fighting a few mental demons with that station. She and two others were the only survivors of the station and that survival was hard-won. We landed in the small landing bay and she stepped out waiting for the fight she expected but was not there. I doubt anyone but myself and Sisters Lynahla and Katolla noted the tension in Merilyn. I laid a hand on her arm and she started slightly, turned to face me, and relaxed when her eyes met mine. This place haunted her which I could completely understand. I asked her quietly if she was sure she wished to join me on this inspection. She simply nodded. I found the station much altered from what I recalled. Everything was pristine and clean, the Imperium Ikea was freshly painted on the landing bay back wall, and everything had a place. Very military in the order and sparse practicality. There were some barracks, a medbay, armory, and a small brig in the main facility around the landing bay. Surrounding the central area were recreational facilities for the Navy crews. I was crewing a small market, an eatery with a tavern, a small temple, and a spa facility. The tavern, the SkullCap, had become the home of the odd assortment of skulls with hats attached to them we had found on the Strixis Station at Izmir. Not my plan but the crews cleaning the citadel had thought it might be amusing for the Navy crews. I agreed and was not sorry to be rid of the ridiculous collection of skulls. All that the station required now was the Navy to approve and use it. 

Pari and I had discussed how to best court the Navy. It was going to probably be a bit touchy. The Victory at Voss was going in with me to the Lathes to have some work done and there would be a stop to officially put it under the Ambrose flag. The Navy was not going to be pleased with losing such a ship. Pari suggested offering to warpbane hull the ships of Battle Fleet Coronus, about 22-24 ships in exchange for our keeping the Victory at Voss. It would be a minimal cost to us really and would let the Navy get an upgrade they rarely got on their ships. I decided I would leave the name, Victory at Voss, and note in my journals to future rogue traders of the house that the ship should be offered back to the Navy if and when there came a time we had no use for it. I doubted that would happen and I would not tell the Navy, but it seemed right. In anticipation of the Navy approving the deal, I had the shipyard start work on a couple warpbane hulls. I figure the Navy would be out here before I got back from business in the sector so it was best to be prepared for their arrival. 

Waiting and inspection done, I gathered the ships going with me into the Calixis Sector. The Cassian’s Bolt, the Retribution of Saint Mina, the Victory at Voss, and the Mechanicum Goliath hauling the xeno ship were all going with me. The Retribution would be getting, hopefully, a Sororitas blessing and might help the cause in getting an Abbey on Druscilla. The Victory at Voss would be getting refit and upgraded as much as possible so it could go out to Naduesh. The xeno ship would hopefully win a manufactorum on Druscilla for torpedoes. The rest would be fate and my charm.

**FootFall**

Once the fleet was gathered we had a smooth jump to Footfall. No surprises waiting for us, just a quiet transit into the station. I only docked the Cassian’s Bolt as I did not intend to stay overly long. I wanted to see about offloading some items I thought might have a market here and just show my face. There was one other major rogue trader in port so I extended the invitation of dinner aboard the Bolt. Madame Charlabelle Armelon was the rogue trader in port. I knew little about her and found little reference to the name in my own house journals. Pari’s agents fished up enough to know I would probably have little to do with Madame Armelon. The Armelon rogue trader house had fallen on hard times and Madame was furiously rebuilding. Either in efforts to save funds, she had employed Kroot mercenaries. I was not inclined to deal much with anyone employing xenos on their ships. It felt too close to running pirate and I, nor my family, have any love of pirates. Dinner was brief, a bit quiet, and stilted. Pari informed me my comments about using my trade posts but keeping the Kroot on her ship did not float well. I have to admit I do not care if they floated well or not. 

There was another rogue trader in port, he was always in port. Wrath Umboldt was a rogue trader of some fame but now rarely leaves FootFall. The stories about the whys and hows are as many and varied as the stars in the universe. Everything from being so filthy stinking rich he had no need for leaving port, to him having seen the horrors of the warp and decided FootFall the safest place to be in the expanse. His ship, the Righteous Crusader, now sits at his dock at FootFall, the warehouse facility turned into a bar of some renown. I decided to see what this man was about. I came with Ambrose wine and an evening to kill and was not disappointed. The bar his warehouse buildings had become was a colorful place. The walls were decked with all manner of xeno and human weapons, trophies, and art. Some of the art was, well, heretical at best, downright vile at worst. There was a collection of Umboldt’s crew and some minor rogue traders and various other captains and crew members there when I arrived. I decided to keep this small and informal so only Fenger went with me. Arriving I was pointed toward the corner where Umboldt held court so to speak. He was standing at the end of a table telling some tale to few young midshipmen from varied ships judging by uniform colors. I listened to the end of his tale before making my introduction. I placed the crate of 12 bottles of a fine Ambrose vintage on the bench and offered him a bottle. ‘Ahh the beautiful face of House Ambrose comes to my humble warehouse’ he laughed and took the bottle then asked what he could do for me. Fenger and I sat and pulled another bottle from the crate, ‘nothing at all but to hear your tales and have a few drinks’ I replied. Such is how we spent the evening, drinking, listening to Umboldt tell stories, and wondering what version of the tales about him were true. I took some razzing about being young and in such ‘good graces with them cog boys’, but it was all good-natured. It was an interesting evening and came away with a few tidbits to have Pari’s agents look into, something about a big, secret auction.   
The auction it turned out was for a location of something big. It was a blind auction so we had no idea who else was bidding or what they bid. Seemed a bit sketchy so I released a choice item or two for Pari to gain some more information. She and her agents did not find out much more but one or two of the items might ensure we get information on when the auction was to take place. With nothing more to address here, we moved on to Port Wander.

**Port Wander**

Port Wander was a hub of activity as always. I had business here so we got a doc for the four ships and I made contact with the Imperial Navy to get an audience. I decided I would also give Nuria a bit of a sample of life off Druscilla and in the Imperium proper. We would, of course, not be alone but that was good since Port Wander might be in the Imperium proper it was still a bit chaotic. She wanted to get something for her brother and new baby sister so we enjoyed an afternoon in the markets. It also gave me a chance to be seen. Rogue Traders had almost cultish followings and some nobles judged the health of the Imperium or sector by how often they saw Rogue Traders and what kind of business they were doing. Seeing on leisurely enjoying a day at the markets spoke of a sense of security or that all was well enough in the expanse. I had also not been back into the Imperium in 10 yrs, so it was good to be seen and let investors know that the Ambrose Rogue Trader was still alive and working. Seeing me with a scion of the house also spoke to the health and longevity. Nuria had a million questions about the port, people who stopped and talked with me, what we were doing here, and on and on. It is good that she is curious and it will be helpful when Huran starts his training with us. My brothers and sister taught me a lot so father could spend his time teaching the more nuanced pieces of rogue tradership. 

I was never sure about wanting children. I am not sure if having to become the leader of the house changed my mind or I had resigned myself to not being able to as a Battle Sister. I have very much enjoyed having Nuria with me and teaching her our history. My crew seems to have fallen right into the routine of explaining things to a voraciously curious child without complaint. I was a bit embarrassed when Bakar Zorin, Master of Ordinance on the Cassian’s Bolt, told stories of a 10 yr old little girl using his spare focusing lenses for a mirror, the child being me. Nuria turned to me and looked very serious and said ‘mother, those were not toys’. I had to laugh though I was struck with how serious she was at her age, or maybe it was how carefree I was. I am glad to have her with me and look forward to having Huran with me also.

Upon returning to the Bolt I had a meeting time with the Navy in a few days and at least two offers on the large xeno ship we had brought in with us. Upon hearing about the offers on the ship I stepped up guards on the Goliath and no one was allowed aboard without my approval, even Inquisition and Navy. The offers were all hand-delivered via third-party couriers, and none were signed just some anonymous contact information. I handed them to Pari and asked her to find out what she could. I am not sure it was anything for the Inquisition to bother about but offers on the ship were without them seeing anything but the outside and not knowing what it was. That was concerning. Nobility who collect can be like petulant children, they want and will pout if they do not get, even if what they want is a live damn grenade. By the time we left for the Lathes, I had five offers for the ship, all for astronomical sums. 

Meeting with the Imperial Navy was a bit more of a dance. I initially met with a commander of a battle group, who was more than happy to listen to the whole of the proposal and then tell me he had to relay the request to sector command. That request would take a few days to relay and I should hear from him again in a few days, maybe a week. Bureaucracy made me angry. I was not looking forward to having to explain this to 10 other people before I got someone who could make a decision. It was not the waiting that bothered me, it was the needing to explain the whole proposal repeatedly to people who had no ability to decide what they had for breakfast let alone if the Navy would use a station in the expanse. Five days later I met with a sector commander who could make decisions about this matter. I came with specs on the station, what I was willing to staff and care for, and what I had to offer other than the station. I explained it was my homeworld and that it had a colony, ministorium complex, shipyard with four slips, and a trade station with refueling capabilities. I also offered to warp bane hull the ships of Battle Fleet Coronas, some 20-24 ships, at no cost to the Imperial Navy. Of course, there was the question of why I was offering such a little gem to the Navy. I then handed over the paperwork on the Victory at Voss, I wanted to register it under House Ambrose. The commander, an older man with greying hair and a fair number of campaign medals across his chest, sat back and eyed me. I went on to share my plan to refit it as best I could and send it to Naduesh to guard a trade outpost I had there, which the Navy was, of course, welcome to use if they found themselves out that far. He considered for a moment and looked at a few reports he had sitting in front of him. The Navy would not be able to station a ship there but the station in such a developed system was always an asset. I said there was no need to station a ship there as it was defended, which seemed to sweeten the deal some. I also offered a reserved slip in the yard. If a Navy ship came in and needed repair work they would have it. I left the Imperial Navy station with the Victory at Voss under Ambrose colors and the Navy agreeing to use the station. They would provide some staff and arbiter forces, a choir of their own but hospitality would be my contribution along with the warp bane hulls. I was pleased with this and decided there was no more business keeping us here. With a few more offers on the xeno ship I felt it was time to get it to the Lathes before it turned into a fight.

**The Lathes**

It was only a few days travel to the Lathes and we docked with one of the Excipio Stations to await a Factor. Nuria was fascinated by the Lathes and turned to asking Janus a million questions about the Lathes, what they make here, how many people does it take . . . I do not know if it is the mechanicum nature to answer what is asked or scraps of humanity left in them but he was patient and answered everything. A Factor arrived and I set to the business of what we needed and what I would like in exchange for the xeno ship. Factor Lankover would have to take my request for torpedo manufacturing on Druscilla to the Forge Master but most everything else we were able to arrange. The Victory at Voss was to go in also for overhaul. It needed to have the shells removed as they were now questionable, and everything brought back into fine working order. I explained it would be going deep into the expanse and not coming back in often so it needed to be robust. Factor Lankover understood and was pleased to hear of a trade station so far out, as it would make it easier for exploritor fleets working in the expanse. I put in some orders for another 5 hab-blocks, drop temple, and trade station but those were not needed anytime soon. I was planning a station at Izmir but that would require a colony first but it did not hurt to plan. While we were there the Bolt got a look over and a few minor upgrades. I was flush from having not been into a port in 10 yrs so caring for the ship was a worthy expenditure. After a week or so Factor Lankover said the xeno ship was worthy of trade for torpedo manufacturing. It would need to be at the research colony as they are tech-heavy and complicated. I was fine with that, I just did not want to have to come all the way into the Lathes every time I needed a reload. Factor Lankover said the ship was interesting. The smaller one had yielded some good information and tech so the larger ship was appreciated.   
Concluding our business with Lathe Hadd I left the Goliath to load up anything headed to Druscilla and go home. The Cassian’s Bolt and the Retribution of Saint Mina would go on to Scintilla. The Victory at Voss would take a few years to finish but I would rather it take time and be tough enough to handle what might come into the system at Naduesh.

**Scintilla**

The jump to Scintilla was short but once in system, it was busy! There were a number of Imperial Navy ships in docks and orbit, communications traffic was also active. There was a bit more protocol this time in identifying ourselves and our purpose. We got a dock and gave limited leave, and the guard was a bit heavier. I am not sure what was going on but I was going to be cautious. I relocated to my apartments in the Ophelia Tower and had 10 extra Sisters beside my normal 4 and Merilyn Snow. It was understandable as I had Nuria with me and the whole planet seemed to be on edge.

My first business was to turn in a couple of Astarte gear pieces to Death Watch. Peerage had its perks and getting time to speak with Death Watch did not take long. Fenger brought a lander to Ophelia Tower to collect me. Nuria wanted to go but I asked her to please just observe, the Astarte of Death Watch were warriors. Fenger and I were met by Watch Captain Gabriel and Tech Marine Joshua, Nuria tried to hide behind me and get a good look at these giants. Joshua recognized the bike right off and though an older model was very serviceable for them. The dreadnought warframe was a bit of a surprise to him. I told him it was found on Zyath and that the city I was working with would keep eyes out for others. It was not Astarte size but very similar, maybe a predecessor to the dreadnoughts they use. I told him technically according to agreements I had with Lathe Hadd should be getting it but I felt at least this one should come to Joshua to tinker with and study. After looking it over he gave me a smile and nodded, he would be pleased to add this to his projects. Gabriel wanted to speak some of the watch station so we followed him to his study. While speaking about the progress and needs of the watch station I had not noticed Nuria was watching Joshua tinker with a small flat bottom ball he had stopped and picked up from his own study area. Gabriel looked over my head a few times and I finally turned to see Nuria sitting beside Joshua on the floor looking at the wall. The ball Joshua had picked up projected star fields on the wall and he was pointing out and naming stars for her. I am not sure who was more amused by the star projector but kneeling beside Nuria she rattled off many of the names Joshua had just told her. I smiled and told her we had finished here and to bid Joshua goodbye. She looked at me and then held out her hand to Joshua, shook it, and thanked him for the lesson. Laughing he handed her the ball and told her to study her stars, he would test her if he saw her again. When I put her to bed that evening she was wearing our Serenes knowledge of star names.

When we docked a messenger from house Visscher was waiting to see Yoshi. Yoshi left the ship long before I did and I had not heard much from him in the last few days. One evening he messaged to say he would like to stop by my apartments. When he arrived he seemed a bit annoyed. Deciding this was not a tea conversation I pulled a bottle and glasses and poured while he collected his thoughts.

He had been summoned to the Visscher enclave by his father. His youngest sister was supposed to be getting married but was refusing to participate in the meetings with her future husband. She seemed to be under the impression she could do whatever she wanted and this marriage business was not something she wanted. She was angry with their father for deciding her fate and she was not going to entertain this match. Yoshi was at a loss. Navis Noblilite houses had very carefully curated matches and breeding. It was a fact that all navigators accepted as part of their place in Imperium society. Genators kept track of mutations and flaws in skill to decide who carried on the house genetics and who did not. In this case Yoshi’s father had wooed and won a wife from a nomadic navigator house, part of that contract was children of the union married back into the nomadic house to help gene stability.   
I was not sure what to say other than it sounded like his sister needed a little sense knocked into her. That did not seem like it would be helpful so I just inquired what the contingency plan was if the sister was a no-go. The nomadic house had two daughters that were a match for Yoshi, which meant the duty would fall to him. He seemed to read my next question and stated she would join him on the ship he served and children would go to the nomadic house. The children going to the nomadic house seemed to cut my navigator a bit. He had become attached to my children so I could not imagine sending his own away, no matter the age, would be comforting. The only advice I could offer was to keep working on his sister. Somehow she had gotten a notion of freedom and she needed a reminder that there were obligations with the station she had. Yoshi said something about his sister spending a lot of time with the daughter of the merchant captain she was navigating for and Pari offered a tail for the sister. Yoshi nodded then looked at me. Pari had offered and he needed to confer with her, not me. Before he left that evening Pari had set a tail on his sister just to see what they had been doing.

My next piece of business was returning this Sister to the abbey. I did this with my guard only and in Sororitas armor. We brought the stasis cask to the abbey with the genetic profile. This woman had been a Battle Sister, a Bloody Rose, and did not belong in the mortifier. There was a little debate on if she was a martyr till I explained she died when I did the exorcism and not succumb to the demon she was hosting. That seemed to settle the matter and she was to be laid in the martyr's crypt. I and the 4 Sisters of my guard offered to prepare her and bare her body to the crypt. We were joined by a Palatine giving us six to tend to the martyr's final needs. I did not ask, really could not ask due to the ceremony of silence, but assumed this Palatine might be up for canoness of the abbey I wanted on Druscilla. The six of us would bathe, don white robes, bathe the martyr, dress her in martyr robes of the Bloody Rose and stand as her honor guard, all in silence. 

Two days in silence, prayer, fasting, and work let my mind work on the question I had been asked, why put an abbey in the expanse. My mind kept returning to Awl and his need for assistance. Rogue Traders were well-armed, funded, and should be able to handle anything we find in the expanse. That was not always the truth. Yu’voth were dangerous as a race and their constructs were equally so, so how could even a Rogue Trader deal with such. There were worlds in the Imperium proper that were just too dangerous for anyone to go to. In the expanse there was no warning about what was there, Rogue Traders had to just go look. There are enemies the Imperium sends Astarte or Sororitas to fight, not normal troops. What options did Rogue Traders have? I would give an option, an abbey and the Retribution of Saint Mina. Once the abbey was settled I would pose the augmentation question to some of the Sisters. I could show them what the five of us with the augments could do on top of the normal Sororitas abilities. I had given 1500 sets of armor and basic weapons to the abbey here on Scintilla to secure the 500 Sisters on the Retribution. Those 500 Sisters could and would help to settle the Coronas Expanse, so would the abbey. These were my final thoughts and points I would bring to the Canoness when asked. They also required a tap on my pauldron when Sister Katolla finished braiding and pinning my hair up. As a Rogue Trader I had let my hair grow back out rather than keeping the short crop most Sisters did, this required I pin it up some way to get out of the way of my helm. Today it was for uniformity of look. Katolla also marked my cheek with the fleur de lis, a mark I had never worn and was not sure I should. The Palatine nodded approval and handed us each a black sash to wear. A martyr's mass was long but well attended. It is a long time to kneel on a cold stone floor in power armor. Taking her down into the martyrs crypt was our final duty. Sliding the bier into its shelf in the tomb I looked at the name plaque, Sister Kathryne Martyr of the Bloody Rose. Who had she been before she was a martyr? She had been someone's daughter, sister, friend. I was still wondering when we broke our two-day fast after the mass. The Palatine who had been with us spoke first and introduced herself, Palatine Felicia of the Bloody Rose. Lynahla, Katolla, Celael, and Jaina introduced themselves as my guard and Felicia turned to me. Jaina tapped my leg and I looked up startled from thought and with no thought said Constantia Litha. It amazes how spending two days here dropped me right back into the habits 10 yrs instilled. Jaina smiled, she is Shah Emir Amber Elaine Ambrose, Rogue Trader of House Ambrose, once Constantia Litha. I apologized for being lost in thought and falling to old habits. Felicia nodded and agreed familiar settings tend to put a mind on a track. We talked some of how I came to be of both Sororitas and Rogue Trader lives and I gave her the short version and the rank had been given so if I did return I would just take my vows. That had been 15 years ago. 15 years and I fell right back into my name was Litha, eating and enjoying the simple fare of the abbey kitchens, and the cold of the stone surrounding me. As we finished Serene came in with Nuria who crawled up beside me and laid her head on my arm. Felicia nodded to her and inquired if novates had really become so young or was she that old. Nuria piped up with she was my daughter, not a Battle Sister. Serene whispered that I was needed back at my apartments, something touching Yoshi’s sister. I told my guard they could remain but duty called me, then made my excuses to Palatine Felicia.

Returning to my apartments I found Zalavant and Pari waiting. Pari’s agent had followed the sister to a club in the lower secluded towers. It took some time to figure out how to get in but the agent had found each patron had a pin, she held out a small warded box to me and I opened it. There was a pin that made to look like a ‘76’ studded with a few stones, nothing impressive. Zalavant took the box and closed it, tossing it on the table, ‘it is tainted by the great enemy’. My eyes met Pari’s and she nodded. The club was a pleasure cult to Slaanesh, and the ‘76’ pin bore a taste of taint. ‘Does Yoshi know yet?’ and Pari shook her head. ‘We need the merchant's daughter’ Pari nodded and stepped aside to speak with her agents. I had Serene take Nuria back to the Bolt, I did not want her here if things went sideways. I asked Zalavant to remain, I might need his abilities. In the meantime, I needed out of this armor and to warm up. 

When Pari’s agents and some house guard returned I had showered, changed, and had a good stiff drink to clear and order my thoughts. The girl, Lindsy, was brought in and escorted to me. I offered her a seat and she made some rude off-hand comment about my being in big trouble when Merilyn Snow put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her into a seat. I poured her a glass of wine as well as one for myself. I set the small warded box on the table between us, opened it, and sat back. ‘I am going to need you to tell me all about this pin and what it is for’ and waited. She stammered about being nobility, which she wasn’t, that I had no idea how much trouble I was going to be in for kidnapping her, I smiled thinking of what Hereticus was going to do to that little club, and beckoned Zalavant into the room. I took a sip of my wine and leaned forward ‘you can tell me what you know or he can go looking’ and I gestured toward the swarthy man with blue feathered wings.

Zalavant bowed and said he had already had a look and was very concerned. ‘Show me’ I asked him. Telepathic communication was something my training as a Sister railed against but it had served me well as a Rogue Trader. I knew the touch of Zalavants mind but it still was unsettling. It felt almost like a fall and then images came to me in snippets. This young lady and another young lady, possibly Yoshi’s sister Asahi, a typical club scene though a bit darker, alcohol, dancing, and then scenes of clothing being removed, sexual acts, and a being. This being had both male and female characteristics, breasts and phallus, and the acts were depraved and excessive. Zalavant did not like sharing them and he hesitated to share some images with me, he was relieved to stop sharing them in my mind. I excused myself to my study, I needed an Inquisitor for Ordos Hereticus. I messaged the Tricorne Palace and asked for Keterlyn and said it was important. It took a few hours before Keterlyn contacted me and all I said was I had information she needed to hear about a pleasure cult. She only replied with a time, an hour from now.

When Keterlyn arrived I offered her a glass of wine and gave her a quick and dirty of how I got involved in this mess. She arrived with a hooded man who walked oddly and was twitchy, and a few Inquisitorial guards. Moving to the sitting area where Lindsy was waiting I introduced them. Lindsy looked positively ill when she heard ‘inquisitor’. I handed Keterlyn the warded box with the pin which Zalavant explained had the faintest of taint on it. Pari’s agent added that everyone needed it to get into the club, a password of sorts. The Inquisitor turned to face me her eyes met mine and asked quietly ‘who has seen her mind’. I gestured to Zalavant and one of Pari’s agents who was now going through Ambrose employees on Scintilla to find any offenders, and I had. Keterlyn frowned at me ‘you know better than that’ and then gestured to the twitchy hooded man. The man was plain but had brands on the sides of his neck that marked him as a sanctioned psyker. He sat on the table in front of Lindsy and was none too gentle about sifting through her mind. He turned to Keterlyn and nodded. Keterlyn addressed Pari rather than me ‘I need a room that can be cleaned up’. Pari nodded and showed her to a ‘second kitchen’, the room was tiled and held a table bolted to the floor, a chair bolted to the floor, a large cabinet, and a sink. There was also a drain in the floor. There are times I am very glad Pari is an alley and not an enemy, this was one. Keterlyn needed Zalavant and Pari’s agent that had been looking through employees. She would also need the two employees that had been recognized. Stepping next to me Keterlyn spoke quietly ‘You know better than to look. Do not do that again’. I met her eyes and nodded, ‘as you wish Inquisitor’. She huffed at me in somewhat of jest and set to her work.   
I went to my study and voxed Yoshi via a secure channel. When he answered I told him he needed to collect his sister, now. Asahi and her little friend had been going to a pleasure cult club. Evidently, Lindsy was grooming his sister to join with the help of some drugs PAri had found on Lindsy. I gave Yoshi a location and told him his sister had a pin and I needed to give it to the Inquisitor. It was the only time I recall him using my complete title, ‘Yes Shah Emir’. I hoped this did not hurt him, his family or our friendship. I had told Keterlyn I felt the Navis Nobilite house would deal with it but she would still want to check that. About an hour later a courier in Visscher livery showed up with a small box, handed it to Pari, and left again. A few more hours and Keterlyn shuffled Lindsy to her shuttle and nodded at me as she turned to leave with her retinue.

I stand at the huge pane windows of the sitting staring out at the city below. My Sororitas training let me push the memories of what I was shown from my mind and I am just left wondering. Wondering how do people drop their souls into the darkness of chaos. How do they forsake the bright light of the Imperium and the God Emperor. Are there people who are just borne to chaos or borne to light. I take another deep drink of wine and consider retiring for the evening. I have a meeting in the morning with the Canoness but I am not sure I will get any sleep here. I set the glass down and turn to see if Pari is still here to find her standing behind me. ‘Your lander is prepped if you wish to return to the Bolt this evening’ I nod and thank her. I want to see my daughter, I want to pray in my own cathedral, I want to be away from here at the moment.


End file.
